On January 24, 2000, a long-distance bus arrived in front of the Central Hospital of Ratchaburi, Thailand.
With a screeching sound of brakes, about 10 militants dressed in jungle camouflage uniforms and armed with submachine guns or rifles fished out of the car.
As soon as the men's feet landed, they fired their guns into the sky, and the hospital guards didn't even have time to react before they could break into the hospital.
Subsequently, they took control of more than 200 medical staff and patients in the hospital building as hostages.
When the Thai police arrived at the hospital, they found that the perpetrators of the hostage-taking case were members of the Burmese rebel group "LRA", and then people were surprised to find that the leader of the so-called "LRA" was a pair of twin brothers who were only 12 years old!
This incident is the sensational Thai hostage crisis.
The underdeveloped child led a terrorist attack that shocked the international community?! This made the eyes of the world quickly lock on the pair of bandit dolls.
So, what kind of skills do they have? Can you become the commander of the First Army at a young age?
"God has spoken to them and given them the power to save the world, and they will be our hope for a change of destiny."
In March 1997, a priest named Ta Harpa, from eastern Burma, brought twin brothers to the head of the Kayin army and said so.
At the time, the twins were only 8 years old. His older brother was named Johnny and his younger brother was Luthor Hue.
Johnny (left) and Luthor (right)
The two brothers are indeed a little different, although they are childish but there is no superfluous expression, the brother's eyes are warm as water as if they have seen through the suffering of the world and have developed pity, and the younger brother's eyes are like a torch, his face is indifferent, giving people an unfathomable feeling.
On top of that, their tongues were purple and almost black.
In the traditional customs of the Karen people, the black tongue is the face of the nobility, and it is a sign of protection from the heavens.
The leader of the Kayin army looked at the two children and fell into deep thought...
The Karen, the second largest ethnic group in Myanmar, have sought independence since burmese independence and have waged a long guerrilla war against them under the suppression of the Burmese government.
Later, the Burmese government discovered a large amount of oil resources in the swampy area of Kayin State, dispersing the local residents to build oil pipelines, which caused the local people to resist and intensified the contradictions between the two sides. After the conflict intensified, the Burmese government also intensified its encirclement and suppression efforts.
At this time, there was a riot in the Kayin State region because the Burmese government army killed several oil workers, and the Burmese government army was carrying out a large-scale liquidation...
"Maybe these two children are really God to help us win." With such an idea, the leader of the Karen army handed the loaded gun to both of them.
In this way, Johnny and Luthor officially joined the army and were immediately accompanied by priests to fight on the battlefield.
After all, the Burmese government army is a group of formally trained soldiers, and it is natural to fight these temporarily organized national armies, and soon the balance of victory will fall to the Burmese government army.
Unexpectedly, in the face of such a critical situation, Johnny and Luthor, two little brothers who were not yet 18 years old combined, showed unusual composure.
Not only did they charge with guns and bullets, but they also used a childish voice to make the cowering deserters regroup and fight back.
"LRA!" Luthor shouted.
"LRA!" Others chimed in.
Finally, under Luthor's command and encouragement, the karen nationalists actually launched a counterattack with real morale.
They selected 8 commandos to raid the Burmese government forces, and as a result, the high morale frightened the government troops, and in the end, they actually under the orders of Luthor, directly eliminated three times the enemy, drove out the Burmese government troops who came to clear the siege, and turned the tide of the war.
After this battle, Johnny and Luthor became famous, and people were amazed at how two dolls who were even losing their teeth could have such boldness. So I was willing to believe the words of the reverend Taharhapa: These two children were chosen by God.
Later, another battle broke out in another area nearby, and the brothers joined the battle as leaders.
The disparity between the two sides was even greater, with Johnny and Luthor having only a dozen men, while the Burmese army had nearly 200 men and was fully armed.
As in the last battle, the brothers did not show any panic, but led the dozen men in a guerrilla war with the government forces for more than 2 hours, and finally returned triumphantly.
After these two battles, the brothers Johnny and Luthor became gods in the hearts of the locals.
For example, the two brothers have god's protection, the battlefield is invincible, the bullets are difficult to injure, and even the willpower can control the war situation.
The most insignificant thing in the world is discourse, and the most powerful thing is discourse. These rumors seem to have really become a fact, and people believe it.
The two brothers, who were worshipped as gods by all, received great support.
Subsequently, the two brothers, who had many followers, broke away from the original ethnic armed ranks and formed the "LRA" that they had shouted when they first fought.
The LRA grew in size very rapidly, growing in hundreds in just one year, most of whom were local Catholics.
On this scale, they have become inextricably linked to many of the local refugee camps, and their whereabouts are often seen in various criminal activities along the Thai-Burmese border. Even once in 1997, they appeared on a Tv show in Myanmar.
That was the first time that the twin bandit dolls appeared in the eyes of the world through the lens.
The station's crew was tracking down some fleeing Burmese students who ran into the brothers' camp, where they were captured.
They carried M16 rifles and smoked cigarettes in their mouths, and the smoking look was very sophisticated. When they noticed that someone had broken into the camp, they quickly reacted and fled along the river bank with a smoke.
Judging from the video data, there was another boy who even forgot to carry a box of instant noodles on his back when he was running away, "sour shrimp ball flavor".
However, at that time, the reputation of the Johnny and Luthor brothers was only relatively loud in the Golden Triangle region, and what really made the "LRA" and johnny and Luthor brothers internationally famous was the Thai hostage incident in 2000.
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, on 24 January 2000, more than a dozen LRA members forcibly captured the Ratchaburi Hospital in Thailand and took 500 hostages.
They confronted the Regular Thai Army for nearly a full day, and although all the members involved in the operation were eventually killed, it gave Myanmar and Thailand a new understanding of the LRA, and not only that, but also made people around the world understand the anti-government organization.
Although Johnny and Luthor were not directly involved in the operation, this did not stop people from being curious about them. People have stripped the information about the brothers clean, and many television stations and print media have re-released the 97-year-old images.
In July of the same year, the British newspaper The Guardian also sent a female reporter named McGee Okane to interview the brothers in the dense forest where they were hiding.
This interview also further unveiled the mystery of the bandit dolls.
According to McKee's interviews, johnny and Luthor's "LRA" at the time had become the focus of the Burmese government forces, and their small guerrilla force had to fight against an army of 21,000 people. As a result, they can only hide in the deep jungle.
When McKee meets the twins, he is first taken to a simple but hidden camp, and then the younger brother of the twins, Luthor, flashes into the camp under the protection of several stout, tattooed men.
Although Luthor was 13 years old by this time, he was so thin that he looked younger than his own age. He wore short, khaki sleeves with an Air Force insignia pinned to the sleeves, and a fish tattooed on his thin forearm.
Perhaps for safety, or perhaps as a habit he had long ago formed, Luthor did not sit directly in his chair, but climbed onto the lap of his personal bodyguard Rambo, staring curiously at the reporter while playing with Rambo's hair.
Luthor did have the majesty of a leader, only to see him nod indifferently to a bodyguard, who obediently handed him a cigar and lit a fire for him.
But when the reporter reached out and handed over a chocolate chip cookie, Luthor did not hesitate to do so.
Soon, brother Johnny also entered the camp.
Johnny is much shyer than his younger brother Luthor, and his appearance is more beautiful, with long dark hair and a childlike clarity in his eyes. However, like Luthor, Johnny did not smile, and his brow was unconsciously slightly furrowed, as if he was thinking deeply about something.
The reporter saw that Johnny's black judo suit was pinned with a badge that read "The Number One Commander of the Army."
During the interview, Johnny never said anything, and almost all the questions were answered by his brother Luthor, and Rambo added.
Rambo hugged Luthor
Reporter McKee asked him why he had come down this path, to which Luthor replied, "Something sacred has come into my heart and guided me to become a true warrior." This is my mission, and it is incumbent upon me. ”
"Have you ever thought about leaving this jungle and looking out into the outside world?" Reporter McKee asked.
Luthor did not hesitate: "No, I want to stay here with my people in our own land, which is our hometown." ”
"Don't you want your mother?" McKee learned before he arrived that the twin brothers' mother may be in a refugee camp on the Thai-Burmese border.
"Think. But my people need me more, and I love my people. ”
The reporter also asked some other questions, and Luthor's answers were generally very crisp, and when he really didn't know how to answer, he looked back at Rambo and answered them on his behalf.
Rambo says one of Luthor's favorite quotes comes from 1 Timothy: "You will always fight that beautiful battle for the Word of God, and hold on to eternal life." You are called for this. ”
After the Guardian reported on the interview, the brothers were named "the youngest guerrilla leader in history" by the Guinness Book of World Records.
Just when people were still discussing whether too much political resistance involved dolls was appropriate, the LRA surrendered.
It was a year after the interview, when the twin brothers and their LRA were mired in trouble and eventually chose to surrender to the Thai government.
Regarding the surrender, the Thai side specially prepared a press conference for it.
At a press conference, the brothers clarified that they had never possessed any mysterious powers that could control the war with their consciousness, and that the rumors were false.
The thai medical examiner also explained to everyone that the purple-black appearance of the lips, tongue and nails of the two people was due to the fact that the two had congenital heart disease and insufficient oxygen in the blood.
The brothers also said they did not have any military wizards and that the real commanders of the LRA were two adults who were officers of the previous Karen Confederate Army.
After several years of carrying guns and fighting, they were very tired, and these few days in the Thai detention room did not worry about eating and drinking, and no longer worried, the brothers felt very good, revealing that their biggest wish was to return to their parents and go to school like ordinary children.
After the press conference, the brothers quickly disappeared from public view, with some saying they had been put into refugee camps in Thailand and others saying they had returned to the jungle and carrying guns to return to their old business.
Five years later, Myanmar's state television suddenly aired a video of his brother Johnny surrendering with nine LRA members. From this point of view, Johnny may still be struggling in the jungle these years.
There is no news about Luthor, who is rumored to have lived in a Refugee Camp in Thailand and chose to be educated.
The brothers were almost never heard from until September 2013, when the Associated Press published a report about the twin brothers reuniting at a restaurant in Sankanaburi, Kanchanaburi Province, western Thailand.
It turned out that since the first time the two surrendered, the two brothers had embarked on different paths in life.
Through UNHCR's Third Country Resettlement Programme, Luthor went to Sweden, where he was educated and started a family.
His brother Johnny, on the other hand, has not been able to find a place for himself over the years, and the video of the surrender in 2006 was only recorded because the Burmese government deceived them on the pretext that it would provide them with jobs.
"The uniforms they wore and the weapons they handed over didn't belong to them." Brother Luthor told everyone in a later interview with the media.
After this reunion, Luthor wanted to help her brother migrate to New Zealand, where her mother and other sisters were housed.
In addition, Luthor also wants to find some of the members of the "LRA" who have disappeared and help them live a normal life.
I thought the two brothers would spend the rest of their lives in such an ordinary way, but just last year, there was news that Luthor once again chose to join an anti-Burmese government organization.
As a result, the fate of the two brothers seems to be difficult to assert...