AP photo Luther (left) and Johnny Htoo are the 12-year-old leaders of God’s Army, a group of young guerillas fighting Burma’s military government.

They are 12 years old.

Brothers Johnny and Luther Htoo lead a group of at least 100 guerrillas who call themselves God’s Army. At least up until the latter part of January, and perhaps still, the rebels who rallied behind the twins (most of them not much older than the Htoos) have held their leaders in a divine light. They have believed the boys “offer divine protection in a children’s crusade that blends elements of the Old Testament and ‘Lord of the Flies,’” as one AP report put it (CNN, Dec. 16, 1999).

An offshoot of the Karen minority group in Burma, which makes up about seven percent of Burma’s total population, God’s Army was one of the rebel groups involved in the hostage takeover of a Thai hospital last month.

Thai commandos stormed a local hospital 60 miles west of Bangkok on Jan. 25, after a 22-hour standoff with the rebel groups, who had seized more than 700 hostages. Ten gunmen from God’s Army and an allied group, the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, were killed by the commandos.

The Htoo twins were not involved in the hostage taking. But two days later, on Jan. 27, their camp near the Thai border was captured by Burmese troops. The fall of the Kamaplaw base came after days of heavy shelling by both Burmese and Thai forces, during which time the Htoo twins and a colleague from the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors disappeared.

A source for the Bangkok Post said that the twins and the Burmese student (who took part in a seizure of the Burmese embassy in Bangkok in October 1999) had fled Kamaplaw, believing the camp would soon be overrun. Their escape was kept secret, however, so the defenders’ morale would not suffer, the source said (Bangkok Post, Jan. 28).

Burmese Gen. Montrisak Boonkong said on Feb. 2 that he believed the God’s Army rebels had split into smaller groups and moved deeper into Burma after their camp had been overtaken (Bangkok Post, Feb. 3). The twins are believed to be skirmishing with Burmese forces and trying to link up with the Karen National Union (KNU), the main ethnic Karen group in Burma (AP, Feb. 2).

The KNU, the biggest rebel army still fighting Burma’s military dictatorship, disavowed God’s Army but has provided them with material support.

“It is difficult to say if they will survive,” said Saw Ba Thin, KNU leader. “It depends if they stand or regroup” (CNN Jan. 28).

God’s Army was formed in 1997, during a time of fierce campaigning by the Burmese military regime against the Karen minority, including reports of destroyed Karen villages, rape and “ethnic cleansing.”

As the story goes, when KNU fighters abandoned the village where the Htoo brothers lived during a Burmese attack, the twins rallied some men and waged a successful counterattack. The seemingly miraculous victory convinced followers that the Htoos had divine powers that protected them from bullets.

The Htoos appear to have little contact with their parents, but professed their love for them. The boys’ father, Pu Kaw, said, “We had a vision that they would be pure, extraordinary people” (AP Dec. 16, 1999).

Despite their sensational beginnings, the Htoo twins and their army did not gain much prominence until October 1999, when they gave refuge to the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors who took over Burma’s embassy in Thailand.

Reports compiled by Melissa Slager, Managing Editor.