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30.07.2006

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Not a child Anymore: Johnny Htoo has come of age

_ by Taisamyone

Johnny Htoo is around 18 years old now. The New Light of Myanmar reported that he surrendered on July 17^th/19^th 2006; nine years after taking up arms against the regime [ref1]. When the world’s newspapers discovered Johnny and Luther, their photographs epitomised the ‘child solder’ image that the world recognizes; however, Luther and Johnny were not just soldiers, but the reputed leaders of God’s Army. Despite an army of probably no more than 500 at most, God’s Army has attracted a great deal of media attention.

The UN estimates that more than 250,000 children are fighting in wars around the world, while tens of thousands of girls are sexually exploited by combatants. [ref2] The legal age for voluntary military service in Burma is 18 years for both sexes. Despite this, the Child-Soldier’s Global Report for Myanmar for 2004 asserted that ‘thousands of children, possibly tens of thousands, remained in Myanmar armed forces and forcible recruitment continued to be reported. Child soldiers, mostly between the ages of 12 and 18, were forced to take part in combat and subjected to harsh living conditions and beatings. Nearly all armed political groups recruited and used child soldiers and several thousand were estimated to remain in the ranks of such groups.’[ref3]

‘Millennial’ religious sects have been common among the Karen and since the 19^th century, combined animist, Buddhist and Christian beliefs with messianic prophets linked with salvation for their followers and reference to a ‘Golden Book’ that contains all wisdom. The Htoo twins followed this tradition with the ‘God’s Army of the Holy Mountain’ and have an almost mystical origin. Depending on which account you read, the village in which the twins lived was attacked by the Burmese army as they cleared the path for a gas pipeline to Thailand. As their village was occupied by the army, the twins rallied a few villagers, and armed with pistols and grenades routed the Burmese army, killing several as they did. Another version has it that while other Karen fighters were fleeing in disarray, the Htoo twins reportedly told their villagers to stay and fight. "At one point there were just seven of them surrounded by Burmese troops," said Father Augustine, a Thai missionary who lives close to the border and has frequent access to the twins. "Somehow they fought their way out. Some believe an army of spirits came to help them." They were 9 years old at the time, perhaps some of the youngest (in years) child soldiers in the world.

Their initial successes gave rise to widespread local belief that they had special powers; they had been sent by God to lead a the fight against the Burma army, they were immune to bullets, mines would rise up from the ground in front of them as they approached. Although they later denied that they had these powers, it acted as part of the mystical draw for young Karen, and others, who wanted to take up arms – between 200 and 500 soldiers, mostly children. Many of the followers of God’s Army were teenagers and pre-teens. God’s Army set up camp on ‘God’s Mountain’ at Kersay Doh, surrounded by landmines; some reports claim they were vegetarian, specifically eating no duck, no pork, no eggs and no swearing, no womanising; other reports claimed they ate cooked lizards, monkeys, birds, etc. I’m not sure about them having black tongues, but they seemed to be chain smoking cheroots in the early news photos – though not an unusual custom for the region.

The reclusive band came to notoriety after an allied group, the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, took refuge with them after the one day siege of the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok in 2000. The siege had probably been planned from the mountain base of God’s Army. The VBSW got their helicopter ride to the border and returned to God’s Mountain after releasing their hostages – though the whole episode caused some embarrassment for Thai security. Some months later, both the Burmese and Thai armies attacked the base to end the guerrilla action of God’s Army and VBSW; who had been held responsible for several attacks in Burma and Thailand. A group of 10 soldiers escaped the barrage and took over the hospital at Ratchaburi in Thailand with around 750 hostages – asking for medical care, safe refuge out of the besieged camp and for themselves. Thai commandos stormed the hospital just before dawn and killed all ten soldiers – some witnesses said they were killed after they had surrendered – such was the intensity of concern over ‘terrorists’. These events brought the world’s media to Luther and Johnny’s doorstep for photo opportunities and a rather unique news story - ‘12 year old twins lead a pack of fierce guerrilla soldiers’. This seems to be where the ‘wistful looking’ Johnny and chain-smoking Luther caught, albeit briefly, world attention.

Some months later in early 2001, Luther and Johnny with around 17 of God’s Army’s soldiers (probably all that remained) with them crossed the border into Thailand and surrendered at a local police station. More media coverage for the boys, who led a hit-and-run campaign for three years against the Burmese military, said their days as soldiers were at an end, saying that they wanted to give up fighting. "I want to live as a family with my parents," Luther told reporters at a border police base near the Burma frontier with Thailand. "I want to study." The boys were then thought to be 13 – the boys themselves were not sure of their age – they were illiterate, with Luther’s bodyguard frequently reading him passages from the bible for inspiration. The boys and ex-soldiers were allowed to settle in a refugee camp on the border, later joined by their parents who had fled to Thailand and had already been granted refugee status.

Other reports have it that Johnny and Luther are not the real leaders of God’s Army, but just a front for publicity. The Bangkok Post reported that Rambo (Luther’s bodyguard) was one of the real leaders who was responsible for an armed assault at a shop in Thailand, or maybe that the real leader of God's Army is Bu Shwe Pya, a Kamaplaw village leader. This same report reported that the boy’s mother was dead, although other reports show photographs of her reunion with the boys. One thing is certain; the ‘surrender’ was world news. The Thai prime minister Chuan Leekpai went to visit the boys and was astonished at the sight he found of the two malnourished youngsters - "They're just little boys, they should be living with their parents... they should have been studying" he said.

In May 2004, the twins made the news again – this time, the Nation had discovered that Luther had married a 19-year old Karen woman and had a 6-month old son. Luther wanted to study music to earn money – they both played guitar in the refugee camp – and wanted to get a job and raise his family. Johnny said he did not want to start a family yet because every day he still thinks of other God's Army members. And ‘news of people tortured, robbed, raped or killed by Burmese troops’ makes him feel terrible because he cannot do anything to help save them. "If I could, I would exchange a comfortable life here and die for the peace of Karen nation." The boys were now 16.

The latest news regarding Johnny’s ‘surrender’ presents us with further mystery to the mystic twins. The NLM reported that the 9 (or 10 as photographed) members of ‘God Army’ surrendered in two groups; on 17^th and on 19^th July. Most previous reports however had claimed that the surrender in Thailand in 2001 was the end of God’s Army – the Thai and Burmese armies had seen to that – “Boxed in and mercilessly outgunned, the remnants of "God's Army" battled to the end for their impossible cause”. But of course there are those hundreds of followers who didn’t surrender, did they just return home or quietly disappear in the jungle? There is no explanation why 9 God’s Army soldiers should have stayed with the twins in a refugee camp since 2001. Did Johnny keep in touch with his disciples and make contact again? If the team had been in the refugee camp, wouldn’t they have acted as bodyguard to the ‘god child’, rather than allow other insurgent groups to ‘bully’ Johnny as NLM claim – although no explanation is given for this behaviour.

The photographs that are available on the internet show Johnny and a group of 9 men; mostly of around Johnny’s age plus an older figure (some reports suggest that this is Johnny’s father). All are dressed in oversize army fatigues - Johnny has a different attire, complete with army bush hat – all seemingly freshly laundered and cleanly shaved – not facilities normally available when just stepping out of a two week jungle trek. All 10 men are named and given army ranks. This may be a true picture, but I suspect that there was a considerable amount of dressing up for the state-run media reporting. The recent propaganda exercise over the ‘surrender’ of Col.Moengzuen gives credence to the fact that the NLM disparages the truth and will not tarnish their reputation for only printed falsehoods. Johnny’s surrender made the back page of NLM, with a couple of photographs on page 10 (English edition) – the front page as usual reserved for some general or another making merit or planting physic nut trees – no my mistake, tea planting ceremony. MRTV carried the video footage, as the last item of bulletin No.3. God’s Army isn’t the headline news it used to be.

Why did Johnny surrender to the Burmese authorities when he lived in what the NLM calls ‘the other country’, and what he called a life of comfort? The explanations given in NLM are trite and unbelievable. Mizzima contacted the KNU, whose general secretary, Padoh Manh Shar, told them that he was suspicious of the reports since the God’s Army members lived in refugee camps in Thailand and had stopped fighting the military - “It is just a story made by the military junta”. They also report rumours that Shwe Pyar who had founded God’s Army and surrendered to the Burmese military in 2003, had this year been staying at the refugee camps trying to convince other members of God’s Army to surrender too.

Did Johnny leave the comfort of the refugee camp to start the fight he spoke of and became disillusioned, or did he leave with the intention to surrender? Did he hope to achieve greater fame by martyrdom at the hands of his enemies? We won’t know the answers to these questions until freedom of the press is restored to Burma, and the people of the country do not live in fear of persecution for speaking the truth.

Child soldiers have been fighting in wars for centuries - the youngest soldier in the British Army to receive the Victoria Cross medal for gallantry in action was Thomas Flinn, a drummer of the 64th Regiment in the mid-19^th century, who was awarded with the VC at the age of 15 years, 3 months. The world movement to stop the practice in national and insurgent armies still has a lot to do. In Burma, about one fifth of the national army are child soldiers - ~75,000 children – mostly forcibly conscripted to duty. The insurgent armies do have child soldiers but on a much smaller scale, - the difference is that these young men and women are enthusiastic and patriotic and they want to fight to protect their homes – they want to stop the atrocities being carried out by the men and children of the Burmese army.

One thing is sure; Johnny Htoo is now an 18 year old adult and can legally join the army. He isn’t a ‘child soldier’ anymore.

Tai Samyone

References

1. New Light of Myanmar, 25^th July 2006

http://www.myanmardigest.com/eng_md/July26.html

2 UN/Yahoo News, 25^th July 2006

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060725/ap_on_re_us/un_children_in_conflict_1

3 Child Soldiers Global Report, 2004

http://www.child-soldiers.org/regions/country.html?id=146

Others:

God’s Army

http://www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=4032

Two little boys

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,347432,00.html

Daddy Htoo

http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/04/05/1bkk/27a.html

God's make-believe army

http://www.rebound88.net/01/feb/25.html

Terror Twins

February 7, 2000, Newsweek, U.S. EDITION

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032542/site/newsweek/

God’s Army twin surrenders to Burmese military

http://www.mizzima.com/MizzimaNews/News/2006/July/26-July-2006-37.html

Teen Rebel Leader Surrenders to Burmese Junta

http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=6013&z=154

Myanmar child guerrilla "goes home"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060726/wl_nm/myanmar_rebels_dc_1

Ten-member armed group of God Army led by Johnny Tu returns to legal fold

http://www.mrtv3.net.mm/

Links

Global Security http://www.globalsecurity.org/index.html

MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base http://www.tkb.org/Home.jsp

Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.org/

UNICEF http://www.unicef.org/

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers http://www.child-soldiers.org/

Quotations

· "I shoot the Burmese army because of what they do to our people. They beat and rape Karen women, they steal from us and burn down our houses. Some holy thing touched my heart and I became a soldier."............Luther Htoo, 2000

· Jason Burt was 17 when he died in 1982 in the battle of Mt Longdon, in the Falklands. Not long before being deployed to the South Atlantic, he was told that he was too young to donate blood. He was too young to vote. Yet, he was not too young to be sent to war and to die. His mother said: "He wrote to us from the South Atlantic saying he had wanted to join up and potentially to go to war, but had not expected he would be going to war quite so soon". His father added: "I kept saying he was just a boy, but they kept saying he was a professional soldier."...........(Daily Telegraph, 19 October 1999)

· I don’t know what the SLORC soldiers were given, but some defectors told us that they were given whiskey before they went into battle. I don’t know if they put something in the whiskey. But at Phalu, there were lots of boys rushing the field, screaming like banshees when they rushed the barbed wire barricade. It seemed like they thought they were immortal or impervious or something, because we shot at them but they just kept coming. We had no choice; it was kill or be killed........‘Capt. Htay Gaw, Dec 1995. (pseudonym) ,

http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs3/NoChildhood-ocr.pdf

......................................................

Comments

Dave Law said _

Dear Tai Samyone, this is a very comprehensive piece that you have written here, replete with references. With appropriate "fleshing" out, it could become a movie script. The whole story should be made into a movie, and I hope you will continue to develop this script and present it to a number of producers.
The message here is two-fold; that the junta is forcing :--
1. Ethnic kids to fight and defend their homes and families.
2. Burmese kids to attack and destroy Ethnic communities.
A good, poignant story-line would be how children on both sides really want to have peace and go back home. It (the movie) will focus attention on the Junta and their barbarism.

Angle Naw said _

Thank you for that.

Your Comments here_

Request: If you can kindly volunteer to translate BURMA DIGEST English articles into Burmese, please let us know BDeditors@tayzathuria.org.uk .

Please download from http://www.tayzathuria.org.uk/BD.pdf a simple, portable and printable version of BURMA DIGEST and send it to all your Burmese friends.