A Look Back at Johnny and Luther: “God-Like” Child Soldiers
By Anne Keehn
According to the Human Rights Watch (HWR), Burma (called Myanmar since 1989 by the junta, who came to power in a 1962 military coup) has the largest number of child soldiers in the world. In their 2002 report, HRW said that at least 20% of the country’s national army is under 18. And, in a 2007 press release, HRW stated, “in many training camps, children made up more than 30 percent of the new recruits.” There have been reports of children being solicited in crowded markets in broad daylight. Child soldiers are brought into the army to make up for dwindling recruitment of able-bodied adult men.
Children fight on the insurgency as well. Pictured here, around 2000, are chain smoking twin brothers, Luther and Johnny Htoo—members of the beleaguered Karen tribe, who live around the mountainous border between Thailand and Burma. They were purportedly the leaders of God’s Army, a small guerilla rebellion in the jungles on the Thai side of the border. Said to possess mystical powers, they fought for Karen independence from Burma, and were rumoured to have defeated bands of Burmese soldiers with just a handful of men.
The group seized the Burmese embassy in Bangkok in 1999, and in 2000, they were linked to a violent takeover of a hospital in the Thai town of Ratchaburi. Rebels took hostages and demanded medical treatment for their wounded—it seemed that God’s Army members had sustained substantial injuries from their battles against Burmese soldiers.
Then, in 2001, when the twins were only about 12 years old, their images were flashed around the world. Hungry and defeated, the brothers came down from the border mountains, and surrendered to a group of Thai soldiers, requesting sanctuary. Thailand’s prime minister later greeted them—and stroked their hair, a demeaning gesture in a country where the head is considered sacrosanct. There were reports that the twins were reunited with their parents in a Thai refugee camp.
In 2004, Johnny and Luther were found still living in the refugee camp, and had “traded their AK47s for musical instruments.” Luther married a Karen woman, and was a father to an infant son. But two years later, in 2006, Johnny—who, in the 2004 report, said, “If I could, I would exchange a comfortable life here and die for the peace of Karen Nation”—re-emerged in the press. Alongside a few other God’s Army members, he had surrendered to Burmese authorities. Photos showed a fully-grown young man in army fatigues. Apparently, Johnny had taken up arms again. Today, the two are around 20 years old—no longer child soldiers. And no longer cast as “gods.”
March 19th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Thanks for posting this. Thats an amazing photograph. Burma doesn’t get enough press because our government doesn’t think its politically or economically relevant enough to really intervene.