god's army

Formed on the 3rd March 1997 in the KNU's 4th Brigade area, two 9 year old twins, Johnny and Luther Htoo, became spiritual leaders of a 200 strong sect that sought to fight the Burmese military under the direction of the twins visions.

Predominantly made up of children, teenagers, and their families the group, made up of both Christians and Buddhist, was responsible for a number of successful assaults on Burmese positions guided by the twins and their military commander Shwe Bya.

The sect's prophecies and principles including abstaining from alcohol, pork and eggs became quite popular in the area, and the KNU lent military support to the group.

However, on August 1st 1999 an armed Burmese opposition group, the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors (VBSW) led an assault on the Burmese embassy in Bangkok, to end the occupation the Thai government allowed the attackers to fly to the Thai-Burma border. The group chose 4th Brigade and joined the God's army.

The VBSW were allowed to stay at the God's Army camp at Kamaplaw opposite Thailand's Ratchaburi province, however there prescence therir brought down both the wrath of the SPDC and Thai army who by January 2000 had started shelling the camp. In what was described as an attempt to secure medical personnel a joint VBSW and God's army group seized the Thai provincial hospital in Ratchaburi. The hostage crisis was ended in a matter of days as an elite Thai commando unit ended the seige killing all the attackers. The twins and their family surrendered and are currently staying at a refugee camp in Ratchaburi.