Monday, January 31 2:14 PM SGT

Myanmar Children's Army Under Siege

By GRANT PECK Associated Press Writer

EDITOR'S NOTE - In December, The Associated Press visited the jungle camp of God's Army at Ka Mar Pa Law, Myanmar. The AP team was the last of the very few foreign journalists ever to see the twin 12-year-old boys who lead this strange rebel group.

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - To outsiders, they look like nothing so much as urchins with guns.

Yet their followers among Myanmar's ethnic Karen minority believe 12-year-old twins Johnny and Luther Htoo, commanders of the rebel group God's Army, have mystical powers and can save their downtrodden people.

At an age when their peers are going to school or helping out with farming chores, the twins have been leading a children's crusade against the battle-hardened troops of Myanmar's military dictatorship.

The rebellion is now facing a severe test, after a bid to secure retreat into Thailand from attacks by the Myanmar army led 10 gunmen from the group and its student allies to seize a Thai hospital and take hundreds of hostages.

Thai commandos stormed the hospital and killed all the gunmen last Tuesday. Two days later, Myanmar soldiers overran the God's Army jungle camp at Ka Mar Pa Law, although the rebels are reported to be fighting on near the Thai border.

In December, two journalists from The Associated Press visited Ka Mar Pa Law, a ramshackle village reached by an 11-hour trek over hill after hill from the nearest Thai town. A minefield marked the perimeter.

The rainy season, which was keeping Myanmar troops from attacking, hadn't ended yet, and it was cold and damp. The visitors were shown to a commander's house that would be their sleeping quarters. A meal of frog and rice was served.

Soon Lin Dam, a sort of junior partner to the twins, made his way to the house, carried on the back of one of his coterie of bodyguards, most of them youngsters like him with runny noses and rolled up military pants.

Lin Dam means black tongue, and indeed his tongue - and lips and hands - were badly discolored.

To a Westerner, it might suggest disease. For the Karens, it is like a holy mystery.

None of the boys was very forthcoming with their stories, and Lin Dam's tale was especially impenetrable. At one point a translator gave up, claiming he was babbling in baby talk.

Lin Dam, who looked to be 9 or 10, claimed to be more than 100. He said he had come to the twins' stronghold from a refugee camp in Thailand. While he didn't have the same clout as Luther and Johnny, he was similarly revered for having special powers.

People said he can't walk more than 10 yards without getting tired. A visitor couldn't help but wonder if the problem might be linked to his chain-smoking, which gave him a serious cough.

Yet Lin Dam came across as a pleasant kid, unlike Luther, who also paid a visit.

With eyebrows and hair in front shaved, Luther presented an odd appearance, although nothing that might not be seen in a California mall. He never wore a shirt, instead wrapping himself in a blanket to ward off the damp.

There was something alarming about his eyes, deep-set and slightly off-focus, like someone living on the street too long, a distant stare reminiscent of traumatized soldiers.

What was unpleasant about Luther, however, was the undercurrent of aggression in his dealings with his visitors, a willingness to take advantage of his position. He wanted to play with a video camera, and he knew his armed followers were too intimidating for him to be refused.

It wasn't surprising to learn he was in charge of the military side of the group.

One of the few times he opened up was to boast of his marksmanship: ``This is the way I became a leader. I'm very good in this.'' He proved it by shooting a papaya out of a tree with an M-16 almost as tall as he was.

Johnny's appearance was a sharp contrast. His facial features were soft, almost girlish, an impression heightened by his long flowing black hair.

Unlike Luther, he enjoyed horseplay with the other child soldiers, though it was just as likely to involve tossing around a clip of bullets as bouncing a volleyball off his delicate fists.

But behind the ready smile was a look of perpetual worry, or wariness, given away by the slightest furrow of his brow.

Neither brother, however, voiced anything but confidence about their mission to fight.

``I have never cried. Why would a man have to cry?'' Luther said.

With an angelic smile, Johnny claimed to have killed ``countless'' government soldiers in his three-year fighting career.

Their army, about 200 strong at the time, included adults as well as children as young as 8 - a commentary on the plight of the Karens, who have been fighting unsuccessfully for autonomy for more than 50 years.

All obeyed the twins without question or hesitation.

``Those who do not listen to the leaders will not be protected when they go out into the front lines,'' remarked Su Bia, a veteran of the mainstream Karen resistance force, the Karen National Union.

He decided to join the twins after losing six of his siblings during a big government offensive against the Karen National Union in 1997.

It was during that offensive that the legend of the twins was born. Karen fighters had abandoned their village. The twins rallied some men in a successful counterattack against Myanmar troops and were deemed to have magical powers.

Victory after victory followed, their followers say.

``There was no other hope left for me,'' said Su Bia, in his late 40s. ``It was almost like all the Karens had given up, but then God sent these two leaders to rescue all the Karens.''

People in Myanmar are among the most superstitious in Southeast Asia, and much of the appeal of the twins is rooted in the belief they have mystical powers.

Fused with that are fundamentalist Christian beliefs held by many Karens, an oppressed minority in a Buddhist country awaiting a savior. Ka Mar Pa Law had a small church, a bamboo structure with a white cross that held daily services.

``We believe God has given them a special gift. God has sent his messengers to come and help us in our rebellion,'' said the twins' father, Pu Kaw. Johnny lived with his father and mother, but Luther had his own house.

Min, who has only one name, recently joined the movement. The other guerrillas told him that when 50 of them went to attack government troops, the defenders would instead see 500 attackers.

``People said guns can't hurt them as well,'' said Min, 28. ``No one can aim their guns right when trying to shoot them.''

Other guerrillas told him they had stepped on land mines without injuries because the twins were with them.

Though the twins' movement is unusual, it has historical precedents. In Southeast Asia early this century, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand all experienced serious uprisings led by mystic figures.

The twins' reputation as holy warriors was enhanced by the tight discipline they imposed. They didn't allow fighting, swearing or consumption of drugs and alcohol. They also forbid the eating of pork or eggs, which they claimed brings bad luck.

God's Army might have lingered in obscurity had it not been for the takeover of the Myanmar embassy in Thailand last October by a different group of militants, radical exiled Myanmar students.

The so-called Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors demanded democracy in Myanmar and held dozens of people hostage, freeing them unharmed in exchange for safe passage to the border.

They were taken in by the twins, who were suddenly harboring the most-wanted men on both sides of the border.

``When I first heard about the twins, I doubted that it was true,'' said the student leader, known only as Johnny. ``But when I met them, I realized that they are really special. They definitely have something.''

National Post -Monday, January 31, 2000

12-year-old guerrillas outwit Burmese army
Twins in hiding: Television networks join the hunt for God's Army leaders

Patrick Graham
National Post

Apichart Weerawong, the Associated Press
Ethnic Karen twins Johnny, centre right, and Luther Htoo, centre left, leaders of the fringe rebel group God's Army, show their tongues as they and their young fighters watch television at the jungle camp of Ka Mar Pa Law in Burma, opposite Thailand's Ratchaburi province, last Dec. 6. They are now believed to be hiding in the mountains.

Their followers say they are invincible and so far it seems to be true.

With their stronghold captured and the remains of their small army driven into the jungle, sources fighting along the Thai-Burma border say that the pair of 12-year-old guerrilla leaders at the centre of a failed hostage-taking last week are alive and doing what they do best--playing hide- and-seek with the Burmese army.

Their fame has not only brought Johnny and Luther Htoo the attentions of the Burmese, who will certainly kill them if they can. Now network television news shows, including CBS's 60 Minutes and ABC's 20/20 have joined the hunt.

But in the deep forests and rugged terrain of southern Burma, where logging is still done by elephant and there are no roads, it's doubtful if any group will get the boys.

Like Butch Cassidy and his Hole in the Wall Gang, the twins have reportedly split up and are now making for a mountain refuge.The chain-smoking twins became icons of one of the world's longest-running wars when their soldiers made a desperate attempt to end the bombing of their stronghold by taking over a hospital in neighbouring Thailand and demanding medical attention for their wounded.

But the action failed and ended with the death of all 10 hostage-takers, reportedly killed by Thai commandos after surrendering--not the first time security services in that country have resorted to summary executions.

The naive plan was characteristic of God's Army, as much a religious sect as a group of fighters, which clustered around the young boys during the last three years of fierce fighting in southern Burma.

Even the main insurgency group, the Karen National Union (KNU), which continues to fight a 50-year-long war in the area, views them with a mixture of concern and curiosity.

"It was kind of weird when we first heard about it -- it was something new for us," a highly placed source within the KNU told the National Post. "God's Army are quite a simple group of people, but they were desperate and had no way out."

Combining fundamentalist Christianity with animist beliefs, the twins are said to command complete loyalty from their 100 followers, forbidding them to swear and drink. A third boy with a black tongue, a traditional sign of divinity in that area, is said to have joined them.

"We were worried about them when we first heard that there were a bunch of kids with guns and no political objectives," the KNU source said. "But they are inspired fighters. They can believe what they want as long as they fight the Burmese."

Johnny and Luther gained a reputation for invincibility after they led an attack on Burmese soldiers who had burned their village, subsequently attracting numerous followers.

While the KNU fights a relatively modern war using satellite communications and sophisticated weapons, God's Army is a throwback to an earlier time when Burmese rebels depended on amulets and superstition to ward off enemy bullets. Even the name Johnny Htoo is said to come from a legendary Karen fighter from earlier in the century.

During the last three years, the boys led numerous successful attacks against the Burmese, for which people who have met them say they have paid a high price. Once energetic nine-year-olds who would playfully hold guns for the cameras, Johnny and Luther now stare with a vacant look that's suggestive of severe post-traumatic stress.

God's Army is a small faction made up of Karen, the largest of at least 12 ethnicities who have fought the military government on and off since the Second World War, and who have been slowly, inexorably losing against the brutal and better-equipped Burmese, who arm themselves in part by selling heroin on a large scale.

"The Burmese are systematically trying to control the area using mass relocations and mass killings," said Kevin Heppner, a Canadian human rights worker who runs the Karen Human Rights Group on the Thai Burma border.

The beginning of the end for God's Army came last October when a group of activists fighting for democracy against the military junta in Burma took over the Burmese embassy in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, eventually taking refuge along the border with God's Army.

The students are thought to have orchestrated the attack on the hospital, which may in the end prove a disastrous public relations problem for the KNU; Karen refugees and anti-Burmese activists have been tolerated in Thailand so long as they do not cause too many problems.

According to Mr. Heppner, labelling the Karen as terrorists will provide an opportunity for the Burmese to justify their war against them. After the hostage-taking at the embassy, the Burmese stepped up their attacks on God's Army with the help of the Thai army's 9th division, a notoriously brutal force with close connections to the Burmese. It was heavy shelling by the Thai's 9th Division that is said to have driven God's Army to its desperate attempt to take over the hospital last week.

But despite the gains by the Burmese army, the Karen have not yet been defeated.

"Without a political solution involving some form of democratic participation, it is highly unlikely we have seen the end of military activity against the Burmese regime," said Professor Elliot Tepper, who teaches Asian studies at Carleton University.

"They cannot indefinitely hold together this very diverse country by brute force." Nor are the twins likely to be caught soon.

"They know the place well and it doesn't surprise me that they are still alive," the KNU source said by cellphone from the border area. "The forest is very thick and you can hide for a very long time."

The twins may outwit the Burmese but one question remains: How long can they avoid the U.S. networks?

Bangkok Post Jan 31, 2000.

KAREN NATIONAL UNION

New president calls for all Karen units to come togetherSaw Ba Thin wants politics before arms

Supamart Kasem
Saw Ba Thin, the new president of the Karen National Union, has called for various Karen factions to reunite for the solidarity of the Karen people.

In an interview with the Bangkok Post at a border area opposite Tak province, 73-year-old Saw Ba Thin, while calling for unity, stressed his "politics-before-military" policy which emphasises negotiations with Rangoon for a truce.

"Many groups have broken away from the KNU. Some have defected to Rangoon while others remained independent. We regard them as having committed a mistake and are ready to give them a pardon when they return," he said.

Saw Ba Thin joined the KNU in 1949 as a private soldier and was promoted to higher positions including prime minister and general secretary before being elected top KNU leader in the 12th KNU Congress held last week.

His first job as KNU president was making an announcement to pardon the breakaway elements and assign the commanders of all seven divisions to do everything possible to persuade them to return to the fold.

"Without unity, our struggle will lack efficiency and it will be difficult to achieve victory.

"We will be like people in a colonised country who are "divided and ruled." A worse scenario is that Rangoon will "divide and kill" until all groups are eliminated one after another," he said.

The breakaway Karen groups include the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army led by Phra Uthasana which has defected to Rangoon and Karen Solidarity Organisation under Maj Robert Zan (son of former KNU president Mahn Ba Zan) and the God's Army, led by 12-year-old twins which are still fighting the Burmese regime.

Saw Ba Thin said it is the Karen's culture to forgive not only misled Karens but also enemies.

The KNU used to release a large number of Burmese soldiers who defected or were arrested after clashes.

He said he will adhere to negotiations and resort to politics before military action.

"We will not attack Burmese units which are located in our occupied areas. But if we are attacked, we will defend ourselves."

"The KNU and Burmese regime have fought each other for longer than 50 years. We have lost lives and resources despite the fact that both sides want peace.

"I think it's time for both sides to stop the loss of flesh and blood and use our resources for the well-being of our people," he said.

The KNU and Rangoon have held many rounds of talks to end fighting but little progress has been made because there are some conditions which are not acceptable, he said.

Burma wants the KNU to lay down arms.

The KNU wants a ceasefire without being disarmed and a demilitarised zone.

The Karens want an autonomous area and representatives in the central government-proposals that are not acceptable to Burma.

Saw Ba Thin called for the Thai government to have mercy for Karen people who have fled fighting between the God's Army and Burmese government forces. They are in need of food and treatment for the sick and the wounded, he said.

He said Thailand's decisive action that saw all 10 God's Army rebels killed was within the scope of the Thai law and will not affect relations between Thai and Karen people.

The KNU and Burmese government sat on a negotiation table in 1949, 1960, 1963 and 1997. Three rounds of talks were held in 1997 when Gen Bo Mya was president.

In the 12th KNU Congress held opposite Tak last week, it was concluded that the 50-year struggle failed because of disunity.

KNU general secretary Pado Mahn Sha Lar Hpan said the Rangoon regime has chosen to negotiate with many different groups and offered different interests. The government's tactic is to "divide and rule," he said.

Pado Mahn Sha admitted there are "Young Turks" in the KNU and said they are given importance by being put in various executive committees.

Although Gen Bo Mya has stepped down, he is still the defence minister, chairman of the Democratic Alliance of Burma and president of the National Council of the Union of Burma.

Bangkok post - Jan 31, 2000

Army plans to upgrade network

Surayud orders new command centre

Wassana Nanuam

Stung by criticism the performance of the intelligence services has been deplorable, the army plans to upgrade and expand its network, an army source said.

The illegal entry of Cambodian opposition activist Sok Yoeun and the seizure of Ratchaburi regional hospital by God's Army rebels from Burma has embarrassed intelligence agencies.

This prompted army chief Surayud Chulanont to order a plan be drawn up to restructure the army intelligence network.

The proposal involves remodelling the army's Directorate of Intelligence as the Army Intelligence Command, headed by a lieutenant-general instead of a major-general.

The new intelligence command will control the operations of all intelligence units such as Army Operation Centres 309, 311 and 315 which cover Laos, Burma and Cambodia, as well as border forces which also perform intelligence operations in all army regions.

The new command, which will directly be under the army chief, will co-ordinate closely with the Supreme Command's Armed Forces Security Centre, Special Branch Police, National Intelligence Agency and foreign intelligence agencies.

Information reports gathered by army units and those provided by other intelligence units will be collated and analysed. Information from the Internet and various websites as well as reports from foreign news agencies will also be gathered. There will be language training for intelligence personnel.

Officers assigned to the Army Intelligence Command will be selected from those experienced in intelligence operations. Information obtained by them must be more accurate and in-depth than that received by the mass media.

The source said the army intelligence command will share a status equal to the Supreme Command's Armed Forces Security Centre, and will be strictly impartial.

"It is most likely Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai will agree to the plan following Gen Surayud's successful performance in ending the Ratchaburi hospital crisis," the source said.

Mr Chuan has also told state intelligence units to seek a bigger budget so as to improve efficiency.

Meanwhile in Mae Hong Son, a 200-strong combined military, police and volunteer force yesterday scoured three Karenni refugee camps but found nothing illegal.

The search was conducted at Pang Khwai, Pang Tractor and Nai Soi camps following last week's recovery of 302 sticks of TNT explosive buried inside Pang Tractor camp in Muang district.

Muang district chief Surapol Panas-ampol said the action was a precaution against possible hoarding of weapons and illegal items inside the camps.

No illegal items were found, but two refugees were taken away for interrogation.

The Nation - Jan 31, 2000.

Headlines

Burmese rebels elude Thai forces

SUAN PHUNG -- More than 100 Thai soldiers and border police here yesterday tried to track down about 30 armed Burmese dissidents believed to be part of the same group that was responsible for the seizure of the Ratchaburi provincial hospital last week, but could not find them.

Acting on an intelligence report that the 30 armed men were taking refuge in Papok Moo 3 village in the Suan Phung district, police and soldiers surrounded the community and combed the area but came up with nothing, a military officer said.

The 30 armed men had been cut off from their base by the bolstered presence of Thai troops and border police who, amid the hostage crisis last week, were dispatched to various border points to prevent further intrusions.

Meanwhile, skirmishes between nationalist forces and rebel armies, including the Karen National Union, the ethnic Karen God's Army and the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, broke out again yesterday but no heavy loses were reported.

An official from the Karen National Union, whose position is south of Kamarplaw, the main base camp for the God's Army, told The Nation that Rangoon was sending in fresh reinforcements and all-out fighting could resume in the next few days.

For the past three weeks, three battalions of Burmese government troops have been launching a concentrated offensive against a number of rebel positions in southern Karen State.

Thailand's First Army Region also lent a helping hand with three straight days of shelling from positions in Suan Phung district, firing 120-mm mortars over the border and driving Karen villagers from their homes.

About 1,500 Burmese refugees, mostly ethnic Karens, crossed over the border to flee heavy shelling. About 1,000 are housed in a camp in Huay Khok Moo, while the rest are believed to have been placed in various pockets along the border. Authorities so far have not yet allowed reporters to visit the camp and have given no explanation as to why such permission was not forthcoming.

At Khao Chong Khachom pass, a platoon of Thai soldiers engaged in a gunfight with an unidentified armed group, resulting in one casualty.

Ten heavily armed Burmese dissidents had taken over a hospital in Ratchaburi on Monday, holding hundreds of patients and medical staff at gunpoint in a futile attempt to force the Thai army to cease the shelling of their remaining territory. They claimed that as many as 200 innocent people have already died from the Thai army's attack.

All of the ten hostage takers, led by Peda, also known as Preeda, were killed by Thai commandos -- some reportedly executed after their surrender.

Peda was one of the five members of the self-styled Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors who stormed the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok last October.

National Security Agency chief Phummarat Thaksadipong told reporters on Friday that so far eight out of the ten gunmen have been identified. He said six of them were Burmese dissidents -- not members of the God's Army, as claimed by the First Army Region commander Lt Gen Thaweep Suwanasingha.

BY PONGSAK BAI-NGERN

The Nation

Headlines

KNU struggles to overcome divisions

On Jan 31, 1949, the Karen National Union rose to rebel against Burma's independent government. Yindee Lertcharoenchok looks at the development of Burma's oldest ethnic guerrilla movement, which is still struggling for a separate Karen homeland and self-determination.

Fifty-one years ago today, a revolution erupted in Burma. Ethnic Karens took up arms to fight for an independent home state and the formidable group laid siege to the Burmese capital of Rangoon for more then 100 days. Since then it has gradually weakened, especially over the past decade. Last week, the Karen National Union (KNU) pledged to reunite itself and came up with plans to revive the beleaguered guerrilla movement.

Its congress from Jan 10-26 could not have been held at a worse time. Since the early 1990s, the Karen rebel forces have faced a series of serious military losses, external challenges and internal conflicts, which led, unfortunately, to internal splits and defections.

In December 1988, Thailand, which used to be very sympathetic to the Karen and other Burmese ethnic rebels in return for their service as a ''buffer'' against the belligerent Burmese, began to shift its stance to support the Burmese junta in Rangoon. Failing to grab the winds of change, the KNU began to lose, one after another, their pockets of military strongholds and civilian territory along the Thai-Burmese border.

In January 1995, its Manerplaw headquarters, which is opposite Thailand's northern Tak province was over ran and in early 1997 the KNU faced another major setback when its 4th Brigade HQ in Minthamee, opposite the western Thai province of Kanchanaburi fell to Burmese government forces.

During those difficult years, the KNU suffered further isolation when a dozen of its armed ethnic allies abandoned their united coalition to negotiate and strike a separate cease-fire deal with the Burmese military regime. The KNU's ceasefire talks with Rangoon, which began in 1995, broke down in early 1997 when the junta demanded that it put down arms and surrender.

The KNU's successive military routing badly demoralised the entire movement as well as Karen villagers, who suddenly saw their lives come under the Burmese Army's threat. At the same time, a number of disgruntled KNU soldiers and cadres decided to defect and formed new (Karen) bands to fight the Burmese.

Unfortunately, one splinter group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), which cited the Christian-dominated KNU leadership's religious discrimination against the majority Buddhist members for their defection in late 1994, had opted to collaborate with the Burmese junta.

With DKBA support, the Burmese Army easily captured Manerplaw. And with Thailand's backing, the Burmese troops took over KNU 4th Brigade's Minthamee camp, drove thousands of Karen to seek refuge in Thailand and displaced thousands more within the Burma border region.

The Burmese brutality and the KNU failure to protect its people drove a small group of disgruntled Karen soldiers and villagers to band themselves into the God's Army, a messianic group of some 150 to 200 armed volunteers and militants who make hit-and-run attacks on Burmese Army outposts and patrol units.

At the meeting earlier this month, the KNU's 115 congress members were shocked when told that a group of 10 armed gunmen, believed to be those of the God's Army, had raided the Ratchaburi Provincial Hospital and seized some 700 medical personnel and patients hostage.

Although the identities of all the 10 young militants, who were eventually killed under suspicious circumstances, have yet to be confirmed, their action and demands, purportedly made on the behest of Karen civilians living in the God Army's neighbourhood, provoked public sentiments to go strongly against the ''ungrateful Karen''.

The public, who do not generally understand the complexity of the Burmese-Karen political conflicts and the factionalism of the ethnic Karen insurgency, began to call for tough action against Karen refugees and armed groups on the border.

''It is a danger for the KNU because it has become more and more marginalised. For its survival, the KNU will have to think of all the Karen people and all of Burma. It should be part of the solution and not part of the problem,'' noted Martin Smith, a British author on Burma affairs.

In an interview yesterday, Padoh Ba Thin, who was elected the new KNU chairman at its congress last Wednesday, acknowledged that the KNU have suffered serious setbacks in recent years.

''We are determined to carry on the fight for self-determination and a genuine federal system, in which all ethnic groups can enjoy equal rights.

''We just can't accept the military system,'' he said. He also accepted that the Karen movement has been placed in a bad light following the 24-hour hospital siege.

The 73-year-old Karen leader said a number of crucial decisions were made at the meeting including the creation of a special committee to look into ways of reuniting the Karen population and armed groups, primarily the DKBA, ''to work together under a collective leadership''.

''We, the Karen, have a saying that 'divided we fall, united we stand'. With the support from the entire Karen race, we can raise our strength and stand up against the Burmese,'' he said.

Ba Thin said the God's Army was ''a special case'' and that the KNU will, for the time being, concentrate on reuniting with the DKBA.

During the congress, KNU also resolved to be more active in the political and foreign affairs. Ba Thin said the KNU will, with internal and international support, raise awareness of the Burmese junta's ''genocidal war against Karen people''.

The KNU, he said, is open for peaceful political solutions to the armed conflicts in Burma, ''but without a response from the Burmese regime, what can we do''.

As a first sign of change, a number of younger political and military strategists have been elected to the 11-member KNU executive committee. Said one KNU leader: ''Half of the KNU leaders are a new generation -- a new blood which would help inject new life into the movement.''