God's army twins reluctant to move to the United States
BANGKOK, Thailand, Nov. 22 - The mystical teen twins who led a three-year jungle rebellion against Myanmar's military regime prefer to stay in Thailand as refugees, rather than migrate to the United States, people who met them recently say.
U.S. Embassy officials visited Johnny and Luther Htoo at least twice since May after the Thai government asked the United States to consider accepting the twins and their family for resettlement. Thai officials are keen to complete the process by the year's end.A U.S. embassy spokeswoman said no decision has yet been made about the twins' future.
Johnny and the chain-smoking Luther, believed to be aged 15, surrendered to Thai authorities in January after the ragtag God's Army they led for more than three years broke up under assault from the army of neighboring Myanmar, also known as Burma. The twins once fabled by comrades as invulnerable to bullets and land mines have since been confined to a secure Thai border police base with their mother, father, two sisters and about 20 mostly young followers.
Toby Bryce, a New York-based writer who visited the twins twice in August to research a novel based on God's Army, said they ''were adamant in their desire to be with their people,'' which would probably mean staying in a refugee camp. Initially, the twins were excited at the prospect of ''going to the land of Hollywood and Rambo'' but that feeling had waned, Bryce said in a telephone interview Wednesday from the United States.
''Ultimately they want to return to Burma, but they realize it's not safe for them now,'' he said. He said a peaceful environment at the police base had mellowed the twins, who only speak the Karen language. If resettled in the United States, they could join one of a couple of Karen communities in New York state and California, he said.
''When I met Luther I expected a brat, but he was the sweetest kid you could imagine, no craziness and 1,000-yard stare,'' Bryce said.
According to international practice, refugee resettlement must be voluntary. Two other people who saw the twins in recent weeks confirmed their reluctance to leave Thailand and their eagerness to get on with their lives. Both sources requested anonymity to safeguard the work they do with Karen refugees in Thailand. Thai authorities rejected requests to interview the twins this week.
The twins, who are Christian, acquired mystical status after Myanmar troops entered their village during a 1997 sweep of areas inhabited by the country's Karen minority. Johnny and Luther reputedly rallied some locals and directed a successful counterattack. The God's Army was mostly comprised of child guerrillas but emerged as a significant splinter group of a larger ethnic Karen rebellion that has endured for five decades.
The death knell for God's Army came in early 2000 when it fell out of favor with Thailand. Its border camp was shelled by the Thai army, prompting a handful of its fighters and allied student radicals to take hostages at a Thai hospital. Thai commandos shot dead all 10 hostage takers to release the captives.
Soon after, God's Army scattered into the forest at the Thai-Myanmar border as it came under attack from Myanmar forces. After nearly a year on the run, the twins surrendered. Aid workers said Thailand remains reluctant to put the boys in one of its border camps where more than 100,000 mostly Karen refugees from Myanmar are sheltered, fearing the twins could become a rallying point for discontent with poor camp conditions. They could also pose a security risk, as Myanmar-backed armed groups have previously launched cross-border raids on refugee camps in Thailand. The Myanmar regime says the camps are used to shelter anti-government insurgents.