Daily News-February 06, 2000,Wednesday
UN CHIEF DECRIES USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS AFTER GOD'S ARMY
BANGKOK (AP)--U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan lamented Thursday the
plight of child soldiers like those in the Myanmar rebel group called
God's Army, which was involved in a disastrous raid on a Thai provincial
hospital two weeks ago.
Annan praised Thai authorities for bringing the siege to an end without
harming any of the hundreds of hostages, but said the incident pointed
to the increasing use of child soldiers across the world.
Children are being turned into "fighting machines," he was quoted as
saying by Thai government spokesman Akapol Sorasuchart, after a meeting
with Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai in Bangkok.
The rebels, including three students who took shelter with the God's
Army after pulling off a raid at the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok in
October, took over the hospital to pressure Thailand to grant them refuge from
fighting with Myanmar forces. All 10 hostage-takers were shot and killed
by Thai commandos. Myanmar is also known as Burma.
God's Army, led by 12-year-old twins Johnny and Luther Htoo, is fighting
for survival in jungles along the Thai-Myanmar border, where they have
battled the Myanmar military regime for three years.
The twins, who were not among the 10 killed at the Ratchaburi hospital,
are believed by their 100 to 200 followers to have mystical powers that
make them invulnerable in battle. Many of their followers are children
as well.
The Myanmar government, which has been criticized by the U.N. for
widespread human rights abuses, claims that God's Army is a front for a
bigger rebel army of ethnic Karen insurgents, which is using the
children to win international sympathy for their cause.
Annan is in Thailand for the opening of a major U.N. trade and
development conference that starts Saturday.
