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NEWS - Twins Lead 'God's Army' in M



Subject: NEWS - Twins Lead 'God's Army' in Myanmar

Twins Lead 'God's Army' in Myanmar

 .c The Associated Press

 By APICHART WEERAWONG

KA MAR PA LAW, Myanmar (AP) - Here at the jungle base of God's Army, no
one questions the leadership of Luther and Johnny Htoo.

No matter that the 12-year-old twins are shorter than the M-16 rifles
some of their followers carry. The fighters who have rallied behind them
believe the brothers offer divine protection in a children's crusade
that blends elements of the Old Testament and ``Lord of the Flies.''

An offshoot of the ethnic Karen guerrilla movement that was nearly
crushed in a brutal government offensive two years ago, God's Army is
made up of about 100 battled-hardened veteran fighters, former
university students and children.

But the Htoo twins are unlike most of the estimated 300,000 child
combatants in Third World conflicts around the world. They rule their
unit, which operates from Ka Mar Pa Law, a village base in the malarial
jungle near Myanmar's border with Thailand.

They tell their followers when to fight, what to eat, how to behave.
Their leadership is never challenged.

Surrounded by adult aides and a bodyguard of rifle-toting children, the
twins speak little to outsiders. Reporters must first be carefully
screened by their sympathizers in Thailand and then make a half-day trek
on foot through mountainous jungle to reach their remote camp.

Johnny, chubby cheeked and shy, seems the more childlike of the two. He
readily lays aside his gun to bounce a volleyball.

Luther, whose moods swing quickly between cocky and sullen, has a
disturbing 1,000-yard stare. Both boys smoke cigarettes constantly.

``I have never cried,'' Luther told an Associated Press reporter who
recently visited the base. ``Why would a man cry?''

When Luther noticed a gun lying unattended, he shouted for its owner. A
larger boy came forward. Luther ordered him to do 100 jumping exercises
as punishment.

Like most Karens, God's Army are Christians in a predominantly Buddhist
country. The twins have a fundamentalist bent and don't allow fighting,
swearing, drugs or alcohol.

The twins' power dates to 1997, when Myanmar all but crushed the Karen
National Union, the mainstream rebel movement which has fought for Karen
autonomy for half a century. According to refugee accounts, government
forces killed men in front of their families, raped women and torched
villages.

When the army came to Johnny and Luther's village, the story goes, the
guerrilla fighters fled, leaving it unprotected. The twins rallied some
men and directed a successful counterattack.

Since then, the twins have been deemed to have powers from God.

The government sees nothing divine about their fighting force.

An official spokesman for Myanmar's military government, in response to
queries by the AP, said the government considers God's Army a group
created by the Karen National Union to carry out terrorist activities
against Myanmar, such as the Oct. 1 takeover of Myanmar's embassy in
Bangkok. The spokesman insisted his name not be used, in line with
government rules.

While many in God's Army are children, others are tough Karen National
Union veterans or members of the dissident student group that carried
out the embassy takeover in which 38 hostages were seized.

Their small following receives arms from the Karen National Union, but
operates independently from them.

The estimated 4,000 fighters of the Karen National Union mostly carry
out hit-and-run attacks, and God's Army fights the same way. But because
of the twins' unbeaten record and alleged powers - their followers
believe they are immune to gunfire - it has high morale and attracts
hard-core guerrilla fighters.

``God sent these two leaders to rescue all the Karens,'' said Su Bia, a
veteran fighter who has joined the ranks of God's Army. He said he lost
six siblings in the 1997 fighting.

``Those who do not listen to the leaders will not be protected when they
go out on the front line,'' he said.

The twins' parents live in Ka Mar Pa Law, and the boys profess love for
them, though they seem to have little contact with them.

``We knew from the day they were born'' they would be special, their
father, Pu Kaw, said. ``We had a vision that they would be pure,
extraordinary people.''

``When I first heard about the twins, I doubted that it was true,'' said
a leader of the Myanmar Embassy takeover who gave only his first name,
which is also Johnny. ``But when I met them, then I realized that they
are really special. They definitely have something.''

AP-NY-12-15-99 1441EST