Surrender of 'God's Army' bodes ill for ethnic Karen

The surrender of Johnny Htoo, an infamous, cigar-smoking, puritanical Christian guerilla, has brought to an end a curious chapter in the ethnic Karen minority's struggle for independence in Myanmar.

For nearly a decade the young rebel leader and his twin brother, Luther, inspired a small band of Karen fighters to resist the Myanmese army at a time when the Karen's guerilla army was being forced to retreat from its strongholds in the face of a major military onslaught.

The brothers, who lived in a remote and isolated village, found their place in history when photographs of the grubby, long-haired recluses - then 12 years old - smoking cheroots and adeptly handling M-16 rifles taller than themselves, were flashed across the international media.

The unlikely heroes had by then gathered a force of more than 200 men and children around them in their new base at Ka Mar Pa Law, vowing to fight the Myanmese army until their death.

Their followers believed the boys were demi-gods and invincible. 'Bullets bounce off them and they turn invisible when they are fired upon,' one of their supporters said. Both boys had assumed the rank of colonel.

In an interview several years ago, Luther claimed he had 250,000 invisible soldiers at his command, while Johnny had 150,000.