Daily News-February 25 - 2001- Sunday

  • God's make-believe army
  • Junta troops poised for new offensive
  • Burmese troops set up camp in Palang Luang
  • Speculation over Tin Oo successor
  • British tourists paid $3,000 to see working steam locomotive in Burma

    • God's make-believe army

    Source: Bangkok Post

    GOD'S ARMY: Although the 'mystical twins' Johnny and Luther Htoo werewidely believed to be the leaders of God's Army in Burma, their recent surrender to Thai authorities revealed that they are merely figureheads.

    Former prime minister Chuan Leekpai was stunned when he saw the faces of the 13-year-old twins Johnny and Luther Htoo "They're just little boys," he said.

    The meeting took place a few weeks ago in the area known as Patrol Unit 137 in Suan Phung district, Ratchaburi.

    After a handshake and some benign pats on the heads of the twins who are known worldwide as the mystical leaders of God's Army, Chuan told the press he was taken aback by their youth.

    "They should be living with their parents... They should have been studying," he said of the world's youngest guerrilla leaders.

    People from around the world reacted with similar amazement at the front page photos and captions: "Thai authorities capture God's Army leaders." "Are they really the leaders?" was the common, disbelieving query. Thais and those familiar with the God's Army lore have more questions.

    "Do the twins really have black tongues and magical powers-or are they merely puppets of an older leader?"Were their members really involved with the killing of six Thais in Ratchaburi late last year-or are they only scapegoats?"

    RAMBO RUN TO GROUND

    The twins and 12 members of God's Army surrendered to Thai authorities on January 16.

    Another three gave themselves up on January 18-the day former prime minister Chuan visited. The group said it had only 18 members living along the Thai-Burmese border opposite Suan Phung district before giving themselves up to Thai authorities.

    The surrender was allegedly a result of a two-week blockade by Thai rangers from Kanchanaburi and Phetchaburi as well as police patrols, all hunting for four particular God's Army members: Rambo, Billy (Kapa), Buna, and Le Bi.

    The four are alleged to have killed six Thais in Baan Huay Sud on December 30.

    Before the surrender, many claim that Rambo, the group leader and guardian of the twins, went to a shop to claim money for wild food which he and three boys had sold. According to Thai officials, Rambo had twice been to the shop but was unable to collect payment. He took food from the shop, which resulted in an argument.

    Rambo allegedly shot six people in the shop, owned by Ratchaneewan Yaphuang. Rambo was reported dead when a bomb in his hand exploded. The three guerrilla boys reportedly dragged Rambo's body into the forest, some two kilometres from the shop. The boys then disappeared into the forest.

    TURNING UP THE HEAT

    After media reports of the killing, Thai army chief Gen Surayud Chulanont sought the cooperation of the Burmese military to hunt the group.

    He also contacted the anti-Rangoon Karen National Union (KNU) to help search for the guerrillas, with a gentle prod: The incident could cause repercussions resulting in a closed border, which would make it difficult for Karens to conduct trade and other border activities.

    The KNU vowed to help and at the same time blamed Burma for the attack.

    "What happened was an invasion and terrorist attack by armed troops from a border area under the control of Burmese soldiers," the KNU said in a prepared statement. It said the former stronghold of God's Army opposite Ratchaburi is now under the control of the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

    After the Burmese Embassy siege by ten members of the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors (VBSW)-a group apparently set up for the specific purpose of raiding the embassy-Burma bombarded the God's Army base at Kamaplaw with artillery and bombs. The base was some five kilometres opposite Khao Krachom in Kanchanaburi.

    Kyaw Ni (Johnny), who led the embassy siege, and other four dissident students sought refuge with the group after they were flown by Thai authorities to the border.

    Burma pressured Thailand to capture the students.

    "The problem happened in Thailand," said Burmese ambassador to Thailand U Hla Maung.

    "The Thai government must solve the problem. There is no need to send them to Burma." The Thai government did not respond. A couple of days later, Burma announced the closing of all of its 2,400-km land and water borders with Thailand. Burma also dispatched five army battalions to crush God's Army.

    Burma also pressed God's Army to hand over Johnny to Thailand, but the group refused. Thai soldiers also turned up the heat.

    GOD'S ARMY OVERPOWERED

    God's Army found itself fending off attacks by both Thai and Burmese soldiers. Thus, when some members of the God's Army's militia and Burmese students raided the Ratchaburi Hospital in January last year, their prime demand was medical treatment for their wounded. Burma finally captured the Kamaplaw base in February last year, a month after the hospital siege, explained Pol Lt Col Somchai Sudjaksuwan, commander of Border Patrol Patrol Unit 137 based in Ratchaburi.

    Sources say about 200 fighters and 100 villagers were overpowered. The fighters split into small groups, while a number of Karens-mostly women and children-fled to Thailand. This group included a boy born with a black tongue, the real spiritual leader of God's Army who is said to have magical powers.

    This group were sent to Baan Ton Yang camp in Kanchanaburi, while Thai armed forces blockaded the area where the alleged killers of the six Thais were said to be holding out.

    "The Burmese attacked us from behind, the Thais hit us in front, so we had no options left but to surrender," the twins said at a press conference.

    On the other hand, Burmese students in Thailand told Perspective that Gen Aliber (or Oliver) of the KNU's Fourth Division opposite Kanchanaburi was instrumental in negotiations with Thai authorities for the surrender of the guerrillas.

    They insist that Damoo, armed forces commander of God's Army, contacted Gen Aliber to send feelers to Thai authorities for the surrender.

    Things went straight forwardly afterwards. The surrender took place and Chuan visited the twins and their followers.

    Photographs were taken of the captives with Gen Surayud and other top brass.

    The twins were taken to a press conference, and the three boys who had accompanied Rambo were taken to the killing scene for a re-enactment. Thai authorities pronounced the twin brothers innocent of the killing. The authorities considered sending the twins to their father in Ban Ton Yang camp. Their mother is reportedly already dead.

    THEY'RE NO TERRORISTS

    Meanwhile, between the hospital raid and the killing of the six Thais, worldwide media lionised the twins as the world's youngest guerrilla leaders. But Burmese students in Thailand as well as inside sources claim the two are merely puppets for a well-camouflaged elder. Moreover, they say, the twins have no magical powers-and no black tongue either.

    "But there is another boy who really has a black tongue," they say.

    An officer in the Thai army intelligence corps claims that God's Army is not a terrorist group. "They are not even well-trained soldiers. They are just a minority fighting for their land to be independent from Burma," he explained.

    The 300-strong God's Army has two groups: a youth group, and an older group which lives about five kilometres inside Burmese territory, opposite the Thai border district of Suan Phung.

    "The youth group lives very close to the border, coordinating and supplying food to the elder group," he says.

    "The elder group broke up after the hospital siege, and scattered themselves along the Thai-Burmese border, down to Prachuab Khiri Khan," the intelligence officer added.

    To gather food from Thailand, the group sought help from people in Ta Go Lang and Huay Sud villages in Suan Phung.

    Most of the villagers in these border villages have Karen ancestors, many are their relatives. Some Western non-government organisations, unwittingly perhaps, supplied them with food, another source said.

    JUST ORDINARY CHILDREN

    God's Army is a splinter group of the KNU. KNU president Saw Ba Thin, who took over from Gen Bo Mya, said the KNU stopped supporting the group when it announced its independence.

    However, the KNU continued to lend its support to the group at times, including helping to coordinate the surrender of the God's Army youth group.

    An intelligence officer said he did not think God's Army was involved in the killing of the six Thais.

    "They helped us gather information about border activities. We don't really know when rogue Burmese soldiers disguise themselves as bandits to rob and shoot Thais," he said.

    "Again, I say: they are not terrorists. They are only fighting for their land. The press has exaggeratedly credited the twins, but they're just ordinary children," he said.

    After the surrender, Thai authorities announced the capture of the twins and the death of God's Army. Still, many claim that the real leaders are still alive-and free. "The surrender was just a front," they say. "The group will be reborn under a new name."This view is shared by a Burmese dissident student who used to coordinate with God's Army.

    "The twins are puppets being used as cover for an elder mastermind," he said. "The real leader of God's Army is Bu Shwe Pya, a Kamaplaw village leader, while Damoo is the group's armed forces commander," he told Perspective.

    "So far, nobody talks about Shwe Pya. Who knows, he may be living in a refugee camp in Thailand," he said.

    But Pol Lt Col Somchai insists that the twins are the symbol of God's Army. "With the two disarmed, the group is dead," he said.

    BOGUS BLACK TONGUE

    Pol Maj Gen Chalong Sonchai, commander of Ratchaburi Provincial Police, confirmed that the twins Johnny and Luther Htoo do not have black tongues. "The real black-tongued boy is named Jor Pa Supree," he said.

    "He is now in Baan Ton Yang refugee camp in Kanchanaburi. He was one of those who fled the Burmese attacks during the collapse of the Kamaplaw base."Pol Maj Gen Chalong said that the boy does not really have a black tongue, but does have black nails due to a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallo (TOF). Doctors say TOF victims have symptoms of black fingernails and toenails, as well as big fingertips and toes. "This is because TOF victims' blood from the artery and the blood from the veins mix together in their hearts," explains Dr Lakhana Yotkonkij, a pediatrician at Kua Karun Nursing College in Bangkok. "The enlarged fingers and toes are a physical change that occurs to allow more oxygen flow."An exiled Burmese student in Bangkok, who visited Kamaplaw base in November 1999, confirms there is a boy with a real black tongue. The student also noted the boy's fingertips and toetips, which elicited admiration in the camp. "Moreover," he said, "his fingernails were red-as if coloured."A Karen villager in Baan Ta Go Lang, Suan Phung, says he has never seen the black-tongued boy but confirms that Johnny and Luther Htoo are just ordinary children: "Two years ago, they crossed the mountain to play here. They're just kids."

    Where's Johnny?

    Prior to the recent Thai-Burmese border clashes in the north, both Thai and Burmese soldiers tried to hunt down Johnny, the leader of the Burmese Embassy siege.

    There are various theories as to his whereabouts.

    For instance, Lt Col Somchai Sudjaksuwan, commander of Border Patrol Patrol Unit 137 in Ratchaburi, says that Johnny, four dissident students and God's Army leader Bu Shwe Pya fled together after the Kamaplaw base fell to Burmese soldiers in February last year.

    "We have received reports that they now live about 50 kilometres inside Burma, opposite the Thai border in Kanchanaburi, though this has yet to be confirmed," he said. If the reports are true, it means that Johnny and his friends are now in an area controlled by Gen Aliber, commander of the KNU's Fourth Division.

    But a Burmese dissident student and a source in the Senate committee on foreign affairs believe that Johnny and his friends are in the area controlled by former KNU president Gen Bo Mya opposite Mae Sot district in Tak.

    These sources discount earlier reports that Johnny has been killed.
    Junta troops poised for new offensive

    Source: Bangkok Post

    Evacuation plans have been prepared for nine border villages in the expectation Burmese forces will attack a nearby Shan State Army base in the next few days.

    The high level of Burmese military movement yesterday in the area opposite Mae Fah Luang district was taken to mean a battle is imminent.

    At least 12 truckloads of Burmese soldiers arrived to reinforce troops deployed against the Shan hilltop base at Doi Kowan, just across the border.

    Soldiers from the pro-Rangoon United Wa State Army were also seen digging trenches at the foot of Doi Kowan.

    Boonchob Suthamanatwong, assistant district chief, said there had been evacuation drills.

    Villagers had all been briefed and would leave their homes for their own safety once the battle started.

    Three villages about 3km distant from the border had been designated as temporary shelters for the villagers in the event evacuation was necessary, Mr Boonchob said.

    Col Korn Juan, commander of the Shan army's Keng Tung base, said his men would resist any Burmese attack on their position.

    He anticipated the Wa guerrillas would try to advance to the hilltop through the trenches they were digging.

    The same tactic was used successfully by the Wa to attack the stronghold of opium warlord Khun Sa at Doi Lang, opposite Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district, 14 years ago.

    He said the Shan army would try to stem the advance by rolling cooking gas cylinders down the hill and then shooting at them so they explode as they roll over the Wa positions.

    "We believe we can kill some of the Wa this way and slow them down," he said.

    Maj-Gen Somboonkiat Sitthidecha, commander of the Pha Muang Task Force, said the Burmese had also sent reinforcements to an area opposite Ban Pha Hee in Mae Sai.

    The Burmese force was just 200m from a Border Patrol Police unit sent to seal the border.

    The two forces were separated only by a Thai-built border road, which the Burmese contend to be in Burmese territory.
    Burmese troops set up camp in Palang Luang

    Source: The Nation

    BAN PHA HEE, Chiang Rai- - About 50 Burmese soldiers, hauling small arms, mortars and boxes of ammunition, yesterday made their way back to Palang Luang, which was overrun last week by rebel troops from the Shan State Army (SSA).

    Just a stone's throw from a Thai Border Police base camp and only three kilometres from popular tourist destination Doi Tung, Palang Luang was the scene of a brief but violent clash on Wednesday morning when about 15 SSA soldiers launched a pre-dawn attack against 11 Burmese soldiers there.

    But yesterday Burmese troops were steadily making their way back, carrying military supplies and digging trenches at the outpost, apparently determined to fend off future attacks.

    But with the new unit set to resume military operations at the post, which sits beside a paved road linking Mae Sai and Doi Tung, tensions between the Burmese troops and the Thai unit there are likely to remain high. Rangoon accused the Thai Army of assisting the Shan rebels in their operation on Wednesday.

    According to a Border Police officer here, a cavalry unit from the Third Army is preparing to move in and take back the outpost. The idea is to match the Burmese with equal strength, the officer said.Maj-General Somboonkiet Sittideja, commander of the Khun Pha Muang Task Force, presided over a fund-raising event for residents of Mae Sai yesterday. He said Burmese troops were well positioned along the border and added there was no indication they would retreat any time soon. He also expressed concern over the living conditions of the 10,000 local residents in Mae Sai district. The residents, who received Bt200,000 in cash and five truckloads of household goods from the charity concert yesterday, will have to be evacuated if fighting breaks out again, he said.

    Meanwhile the leaders of three armed ethnic rebel groups fighting the military government of Burma for independence reaffirmed their commitment to their military campaigns against the junta but said they were open to negotiation.

    "The junta's troops are increasing their military efforts to cleanse the Shans, Karennis and Karens from their homelands. Solving the problems by military means can only create new conflicts and problems," the leaders of the Shan State Army, Karenni National Progressive Party and Karen National Union said in a joint statement.

    "If the junta refuses to abandon its violent methods of solving problems, we have no choice but to use violence against violence," the group said.

    They also accused Rangoon of stepping up its "ethnic-cleansing campaign" this year and accused the Burmese generals of being directly involved in drug trafficking.

    Burma has for decades been the source of most of the world's heroin. Thai narcotics officials say the pro-Rangoon United Wa State Army is responsible for the millions of methamphetamine tablets that have flooded into Thailand.
    Speculation over Tin Oo successor

    Source: The Hindu (India)

    SINGAPORE--The death of Lt. Gen. Tin Oo, the number four man in the military Government of Burma, in a helicopter crash earlier this week, has led to considerable speculation about his likely successor coming from one of the two factions in the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

    In an analysis, The Straits Times said the man appointed to the job would indicate which of the two factions - one led by the Army Chief and SPDC Vice-Chairman, Gen. Maung Aye, or the other one headed by the military intelligence chief and SPDC Secretary- 1, Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt - would emerge on top.

    ``In reformist terms, both are hard nuts. Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt's shell is softer, but only just. The late Tin Oo, 67, as an ally of Gen. Maung Aye, was expected to take his job if the General moved up to become SPDC Chairman on Gen. Than Shwe's retirement,'' the paper argued.

    However, the analysis said, Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt may now have his eye on appointing a man of his choice to the vacant position of Army Chief of Staff, the job Lt. Gen. Tin Oo held. The intelligence chief, who has had several rounds of talks with the National League for Democracy (NLD) general secretary, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, was described as the ``public face'' of the regime; the man that visiting diplomats met in Rangoon.

    ``Gen. Maung Aye, on the other hand, is a solid Army man and is thought to be suspicious of any moves to accommodate Ms. Suu Kyi. He is also an opponent of economic liberalisation. The leaning of Lt. Gen. Tin Oo's replacement will suggest which of these two men's star is on the ascendant,'' the newspaper said.

    ``Myanmar watchers say the death of Lt. Gen. Tin Oo is a loss to Gen. Maung Aye. Considered a tough soldier and respected within Army circles, he was hated by the ethnic minorities... diplomats say a culture of fear within the regime prevents insiders speaking about what is going on. Lt. Gen Tin Oo's replacement may say nothing, but who he is will speak volumes,'' the newspaper added.

    It is not clear when a successor would be appointed though a military funeral for Lt. Gen. Tin Oo was held Friday in Rangoon.

    Interestingly, those familiar with Burma say that while Gen. Maung Aye is a veteran of many a battle against the communist guerillas and ethnic insurgents, Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt has never been a fighting man.

    Given the fact that this counts for a lot in the military, it is evident that Gen. Maung Aye commands considerable support from the rank and file of the Army.
    British tourists paid $3,000 to see working steam locomotive in Burma

    Source: The Seattle Times

    ABOARD LOCAL 167, Burma -- In a remote village on the Burma plains, 38 excited Westerners line up on a rice-paddy dike, taking aim at a spewing, tar-black hulk. As it nears, they fire.

    The British tourists have come 5,500 miles and paid $3,000 to capture with cameras a highly endangered species: the working steam locomotive.

    For railway buffs, the chugging wheels, billowing smoke and boxy design of an earlier industrial era exercise such a powerful pull that they travel the globe tracking down the last steam locos.

    About five years ago, this fraternity discovered Burma, and steam-train tourism - abetted by exotic scenery and friendly locals - has been growing since. Britons, Germans and Japanese top the arrivals, with Americans, Australians and other Western Europeans following.

    They come to inspect some 40 steam locos still in service and ride behind them on five lines, including one to a hard-to-reach mining site dating back to 1908. There are also special tourist charters, quaint stations and a repair yard in Rangoon that could pass for a medieval blacksmith's shed.

    "It's a museum piece for us, but for the locals it's just a routine, daily thing," says Barry Burns as we board the 167 for a $1 - 25-kyat (5 cents) for Myanmar passengers - ride from Pyuntansa to Madauk via Nyaunglebin.

    It's a local line in every sense of the word, and the scenes within and around the train are probably not unlike those of 1877 when the British colonials launched Burma's first rail service.

    A Buddhist monk, sitting cross-legged on a carriage bench, fixes on the passing countryside as if in meditation. White-washed pagodas peek out of green village groves, bullock carts trundle home from rice fields, trailing swirls of dust.

    Around him, lovely women loaded down with toddlers and heaping baskets display teeth blackened by betel-nut chewing every time they smile.

    Children in green sarongs, the national school uniform, find us two foreigners objects of endless but friendly curiosity. When this reporter puts his arm around the shoulder of an elderly women for a photograph, some 50 passengers burst out in long, infectious peals of laughter.

    We travel "ordinary class," which is no misnomer. The carriage, a circa 1960 hand-me-down from India, features rows of granite-hard benches along both sides and has been stripped of every fixture, including windowpanes and light bulbs.

    The 16-mile run, made twice a day, seven days a week, takes all of one hour, 45 minutes, the train chugging its way through the countryside at little faster than a brisk jog.

    At stations, mostly consisting of grass shacks, vendors scamper aboard to sell peanuts, watermelons and shrimp crackers while others load produce of the land onto two freight cars.

    A big, black pig manages to leap off one of them so the locomotive driver waits until pursuing farmers chase it down and drag it back aboard.

    "Maybe he didn't have a ticket," jokes one of the British tourists when we reached the village of Madauk, and the end of the line.

    Surrounded by local children trying to practice their few words of English, the group snapped away as the driver of loco YD967, made in Britain in 1949, obligingly pulled out of Madauk at a snail's pace.

    "I think it's nostalgia for when you were a child. I remember the steam trains when I was growing up," says Burns, of Middlesbrough, who like a true train spotter whipped out a notebook to record technical details of the locomotive.

    The steam era in Britain ended in 1968. But the British and others enamored of industrial history and the romance of train travel scour the world in search of the dwindling number of survivors. Although their wives were decidedly less enthusiastic, male members of this group had spent a lifetime of vacations pursuing this quest.

    Richard Moreton says there are very few countries with a significant number of working locomotives rather than those preserved for tourism. Most are found in China, Indonesia, Cuba and Burma. "You can count them on the fingers of one hand," he says.

    Myanmar might well switch to diesel locomotives, which are cheaper to operate, but one of the world's poorest nations lacks the cash to buy enough to go around.

    "I can't help it," Moreton says of his addiction. He explains that as a child in England the hiss of steam was his daily companion at his railroad-side home and school. Last year, he took a rail vacation in Sardinia and earlier visited China and Cuba, countries where steam is variously used in logging, factory operations and sugar cane fields.

    Authenticity, as found aboard Local 167, is the ultimate prize for those who revel in the trains of yesteryear.

    But the British group wasn't sniffing at its planned two-day jaunt aboard a specially chartered, five-carriage train, including dining and sleeping cars. It would be the first in years to travel the fabled road to Mandalay - by steam.