Burma: Army of the Child God
Duration: 12'08"
Camera/Producer: Bernard Genier
Reporter: Jonathan Miller
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In the world's longest running civil war, ethnic Karen rebels wage a losing battle against the Burmese military. But among them there is one small band which has had a string of remarkable victories. It is commanded by a nine-year old boy - whose soldiers believe is possessed of magical powers. This is their story.
At dawn in the jungles of south eastern Burma, a small army of rebels sings the anthems of the Karen resistance. Although with recent successes the Burmese have brought the ethnic Karen to their knees, here the anthems are sung with hope, for these Christian guerillas believe that this time God has come to their aid - through a child.
It all began when nine-year old Luther announced that he had had a vision - his calm self-assurance convincing all who listened that God was speaking through him. Suddenly at a time of devastating defeats for the Karen, here was a supernatural source of hope - though perhaps blind faith in a child prophet is a measure of how desperate things had become.
But now his visions inspire their tactics, and they believe his presence on the battlefield protects them from harm. When Luther is there, the soldiers tell us, landmines fail to explode and bullets fall aside. They point to the fact that, in more than one year of jungle insurgency, not one soldier of Luther's little army has been killed or seriously wonded. Among Burma's five-million strong Karen population, Luther has become a living legend.
In his jungle camp Luther is the commander in chief, inspecting his troops and overseeing their training. Many of the soldiers are children too - "None of us is too young to fight", they say. For these youngsters, guns and battle is all they know - their parents may be dead, victims of war, disease, or the scorched earth tactics of the Burmese. For them, God's army is a family and a way of life. For like crusading monks, they obey strict rules - no eating meat, no lying, prayers to be said three times a day and mass every night.
In the morning consignments of weapons arrive from over the Thai border by Elephant. The children clean and check them before they prepare for another day's patrol - and perhaps another encounter with the Burmese, and another brush with death.
This Insight News report gives the inside story to this small band of guerillas. It is an account of how a child prophet has inspired a tiny army against one of the world's most brutal military regimes - at least until their luck, if luck it is, runs out.
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