Rebel leaders in Burma
Source : Genevieve Jiang
The New Paper (Singapore)/March 27
Hailed as heroes and revered as 'Gods'. Johnny and Luther Htoo of the God's Army were the stuff of legends in their many battles with the Myanmar military. But how's life in that white bungalow near the Myanmar border, the place they have been kept ever since they surrendered to the Thai army in January?
But just 'pitiful' kids in this Thai border town
WE could hear the lively chatter and cheerful laughter of children.
A group of boys were playing with boomerangs in front of a white house with several policemen and soldiers.
A far cry from life in the jungles of Burma where they waged many battles.
Here at the house, they are children again.
Playing with boomerangs and enjoying a game of soccer. Free to have fun. And not be afraid.
The heavily-secured house is near the police headquarters at Suan Phung, a town in this Ratchaburi province, some 220km from Bangkok.
The residents of this quiet Thai town near the border with Burma seem oblivious to the two child hero-gods held just metres from their homes.
Said a food stall owner: "We are not afraid of them. Neither are we in awe of them. They are just children, not gods.
"All those tales about them being gods are just stories that people have made up."
A book stall owner, Madam Wanna Bullat, 34, claimed to have seen the twin boys when they first arrived at Suan Phung early last month.
A group of Thai policemen had taken them out on bicycles to buy food and groceries at the nearby stalls.
Said Madam Wanna: "They looked really small and thin, like eight-year-olds."
Madam Wanna, who claimed to have stopped and talked to the boys, said: "They understand Thai, so I could ask them some questions... I asked them if they wanted to study and they nodded.
"Then, I asked them if they would like to buy some books from me. Johnny said yes, he would love to, but he doesn't know how to read."
Madam Wanna told The New Paper that when the boys first arrived at Suan Phung, Thais from all over the country came to the frontier town with gifts and donations.
She said: "Most of the people came from Bangkok. There were ordinary citizens, but many were welfare officers.
"They had come to donate old clothes and toys to the children."
The mystical God's Army anti-Burma rebel movement was finally hunted down over a bloody New Year's Eve raid on a village in this province.
After their capture by Thai troops in January, the twins had said that all they wanted was to return to Burma. And, go to school like ordinary children.
The Htoo brothers are being held with a dozen other supporters, mostly women and children, in a double-storey white bungalow within the police headquarters.
Their mother, Mah Kae, 48, lives with them in the same house.
Some local residents have been allowed to enter the police headquarters to visit.
Said Madam Wanna: "If you're a familiar face, the policemen will let you in - not to see the boys, but to visit friends working or living in the quarters."
Madam Wanna, who has a friend working in the headquarters, claimed to have seen the boys several times. She said:
"The boys live with one of the police captains and his wife. His wife prepares all their meals. They have simple Thai fare, three times a day. There is a television set in the house. All the children share a room when they sleep.
"Sometimes, you can see the children having a game of soccer in the compound in front of the house."
Just in front of the house is a sports stadium, some 100m from the row of shops and food stalls.
There was no fence or gate separating the house from the stadium. Only tall grass and some trees. The police guard-post was about 50m away. Said Madam Wanna: "There are policemen who protect the boys, but I don't think security is very tight. They are, after all, just kids."
MINORITY STRUGGLE
THE God's Army is a breakaway faction of Burma's ethnic Karen National Union rebels, comprising mainly students and child soldiers.
The rebels were locked in a bloody independence struggle with the Burma's military for decades.
The story of the twins began in early 1997 when the Myanmar army began driving out Karen and Mon tribes from jungles near the border with Thailand.
Both tribes are ethnic minorities in Burma.
The twins, about eight years old at that time, claimed they had heard a voice telling them to convey a message to the Karen people.
They asked for seven men to be picked to launch a counter-attack on the Burmese army.
The seven-man mission was reportedly successful. They captured weapons and ammunition.
Word spread and God's Army was formed, attracting fighters from other groups.
They ordered abstinence from pork, eggs, and alcohol.
Also forbidden were the use of foul language and sexual promiscuity.
From their squalid base in K'maw Plaw in south-eastern Burma, the God's Army established a presence across the border in the Suan Phung district of Thailand's Ratchaburi province.
Said to possess black tongues and supernatural powers, the twins led their motley band of Karen fighters in a no-win struggle for control of jungle paths and wild hills in Burma.
SEIZED A HOSPITAL
Often, the fighting would spread to Thailand, angering the border communities.
The God's Army is alleged to have seized a hospital in Ratchaburi last year, holding 500 hostages until Thai forces killed all 10 guerillas in a daybreak raid.
The Thais were provoked to retaliate after six people were shot dead in a grocery store in January this year.
The Thai army ordered the group to surrender or die.
Border police, army and local police surrounded the group, cut off their supply routes and starved them into submission. On Jan 16, the twins surrendered.