“子弹打不中我们”:缅甸双胞胎被战争改变的一生
‘We Were Bulletproof’: As Child Soldiers Grow Up, Legacy of War Lingers
HANNAH BEECH
2020年10月13日
NAT THAN KWIN, Myanmar — Johnny Htoo lay on a concrete floor. His eyes stared at nothing in particular.
缅甸勃固——约翰尼·托(Johnny Htoo)躺在水泥地上,视线没有焦点。
Back when he was a boy, when he and his twin, Luther, commanded God’s Army, Johnny was renowned for seeing what others could not see.
小时候同孪生兄弟路德(Luther)一起指挥上帝军(God’s Army)时,约翰尼以能看见别人看不见的东西闻名。
His soldiers, men hardened from one of the world’s most enduring civil wars, believed that Johnny and Luther Htoo could magically shield them from bullets — child talismans for an oppressed people, the ethnic Karen of Myanmar.
他手下的士兵经历了世界上最持久的内战后变得更加强悍,他们相信约翰尼和路德·托能够神奇地保护他们免受子弹伤害——他们是受压迫的缅甸克伦族的儿童护身符。
Johnny’s cousin hushed the others in the shack on Thailand’s border with Myanmar. They waited for his words. Johnny, now 32, closed his eyes and eased into sleep.
在这座位于泰缅边境的小屋里,约翰尼的表兄弟让其他人安静下来。他们等待他发话。32岁的约翰尼闭上眼睛,慢慢地睡着了。
“Drunk,” whispered Hser Ler El, one of Johnny’s friends and followers. “Always drunk.”
“喝多了,”塞勒艾(Hser Ler El)轻声说,他是约翰尼的朋友和追随者之一。“他总是醉醺醺的。”
Hundreds of miles away, in the forests of eastern Myanmar, the light from a cheap cellphone shone on Luther Htoo’s bare chest, where a tattoo of the flag of the Karen people covered his heart. Below it was a pucker of scarred skin.
几百英里之外,缅甸东部的森林里,廉价手机发出的光照在路德·托裸露的胸膛上,心脏的位置有一个克伦族旗帜的纹身,周围的皮肤疤痕累累。
Luther pointed to his eye socket, his knee, his thigh. There were at least 10 bullet wounds on his body, he said.
卢瑟指着自己的眼眶、膝盖和大腿。他说,自己身上至少有10处枪伤。
He lapsed into silence. His eyes were glazed.
他陷入沉默,眼神呆滞。
“Drunk,” said his girlfriend’s mother, Naw Htay Myint. “He’s always drunk.”
“喝多了,”他女友的母亲瑙泰敏(Naw Htay Myint)说。“他总是醉醺醺的。”
Just before the turn of the century, Luther and Johnny Htoo, then not even 10 years old, took command of a Karen militia hundreds strong that aimed to protect the ethnic group from incursions by the Myanmar army. The boys were barely taller than their rifles. But their followers, descendants of Baptists converted by U.S. missionaries, worshipped the twins. Each, they said, could use prayer to conjure up a battalion of invisible soldiers sent by God.
就在本世纪初之前,当时还不到10岁的路德和约翰尼·托指挥着一支数百人的克伦族民兵,保护这个民族免受缅甸军队的入侵。两个男孩比手中的步枪高不了多少。但他们的追随者——在美国传教士影响下皈依的浸信会教徒的后代——崇拜这对双胞胎。他们说,两个人都可以通过祈祷,召唤出一支上帝派来的隐形部队。
The Htoo boys generated worldwide attention when their crusade ended in a storm of bullets. At least 100 of God’s Army’s fighters, some children, were killed in years of battle. Many more lost limbs, livelihoods and their grip on reality.
托家兄弟的圣战在枪林弹雨中的结束,引起了全世界的关注。多年的战斗中,至少有100名上帝军的战士被杀,其中一些是孩子。更多的人失去了肢体、生计和对现实的认知。
Two decades later, the Htoo twins’ mystique endures. The boys, now men, are the last connection to a lost home for their followers, who have dispersed across the world, from refugee camps in Thailand to exile communities in places like New Zealand and North Carolina.
二十年后,托家双胞胎的神秘感依然存在。两个男孩现在已经长大成人,是他们的追随者与失落的家园的最后联系。这些人分散在世界各地,从泰国的难民营到新西兰和北卡罗来纳州等地的流亡社区。
The displaced soldiers are part of a global diaspora of refugees that is now the largest in history. At least 100 million people around the world have had to flee their homes over the past decade. In Myanmar, more than 1 million ethnic minorities, mostly Rohingya Muslims, have been uprooted by conflict since 2016. As Myanmar’s borderlands remain at war, United Nations investigators have accused the nation’s army of acting with genocidal intent against its own people.
流离失所的士兵是当前这场史上空前的全球难民潮的一部分。在过去十年中,世界各地至少有1亿人不得不逃离家园。在缅甸,自2016年以来,已有100多万少数民族因冲突而背井离乡,其中大部分是罗兴亚穆斯林。缅甸边境仍处于战争状态,联合国调查人员指责该国军队对自己的人民采取了种族灭绝行动。
After years in exile, Johnny and Luther’s fighters — and even Johnny and Luther — have watched their physical scars heal. Some of their children are now Americans, Swedes and New Zealanders, pledging allegiance to other flags.
在流亡多年后,约翰尼和路德的战士们——甚至约翰尼和路德自己——已经看到身体上的伤痕在愈合。他们的一些孩子现在是美国人、瑞典人和新西兰人,已经向着别的旗帜宣誓效忠。
As they escape to farther and colder climates, the former ranks of God’s Army have found that their present is still weighted by the past. Even for the younger generation, those who have never set foot in Myanmar, their lives are tied to a village long gone or an army since beaten.
随着他们逃到更远、更冷的地方,上帝军的前成员发现他们仍然受到过去的拖累。即使是那些从未踏足缅甸的年轻一代,他们的生活也与一个早已消失的村庄或一支已被击败的军队联系在一起。
Luther and Johnny’s mother, sisters and other relatives were resettled in Auckland, New Zealand, 12 people now crammed into a five-room house. More than a decade after arriving in the country, the twins’ mother, Pe Khen, cannot get used to the highways or the inability to just stroll to a friend’s house on a dirt path. Everyone is isolated, Pe Khen said, even if a dozen relatives live together.
路德和约翰尼的母亲、姐妹和其他亲戚被重新安置在新西兰的奥克兰,12个人挤在一个有5个房间的房子里。来到这个国家十几年后,对这种需要通过高速公路出行,不能沿着一条土路走到朋友家的生活,双胞胎的母亲佩景(Pe Khen)仍然难以适应。佩景说,尽管是十几个亲戚住在一起,但每个人都孤立无援。
“I want to go home,” she said. Then she reconsidered. “I don’t want to go home.”
“我想回家,”她说。然后她又想了想。“我不想回家。”
Everyone in the village near God’s Mountain, deep in Karen country, knew that Johnny and Luther Htoo, born in 1988, were special.
在克伦族的深处,靠近上帝山的村庄里,每个人都知道,1988年出生的约翰尼和路德·托是与众不同的。
There was the tale of the time when Luther went to bathe in a stream and shape-shifted into an old man who might have been an apostle. There was the moment when Johnny supposedly walked on water, his long hair flowing like they imagined Jesus’ did. By the time the twins were a decade old, the villagers said, the boys had assembled armies of invisible men who could ambush Myanmar soldiers with barely a rustle of bamboo to give away their positions.
有一个关于路德的故事,说他有一次去小溪洗澡的时候变成了一个老人的样子,可能是一名使徒。据说有一次,约翰尼曾在水上行走,他长发飘逸,就像他们想象中的耶稣那样。村民们说,双胞胎十岁的时候组建了一支隐形部队,只要听到一点点竹林的沙沙声,就能发现缅甸士兵的位置,对他们展开伏击。
The villagers had longed for a messiah, and they received two.
村民们渴望一个弥赛亚,结果得到了两个。
The Htoo twins came from a family that farmed the land and fashioned homemade bullets for hunting. Myanmar army offensives forced them into the forests along the border between Myanmar and Thailand when they were in kindergarten, and the boys were expected to join the Karen National Liberation Army, the largest Karen militia, as their father had.
托家双胞胎来自当地一个耕作和使用自制子弹狩猎的家庭。当他们还在幼儿园的时候,缅甸军队的进攻迫使一家人逃进了缅泰边境的森林中,孩子们被要求和他们的父亲一起加入克伦民族解放军(Karen National Liberation Army),这是克伦族最大的民兵组织。
Karen rebels have been fighting the state almost since the moment that the country also known as Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948. The new nation was a patchwork federation of the majority Bamar and dozens of minority groups. But the Karen, some 5 million people, chafed against the fledgling government’s chauvinism. Some took up arms, as did other ethnic insurgents.
克伦反政府武装几乎从1948年缅甸脱离英国独立以来就一直在与政府作战。这个新的国家是由占人口多数的缅族和几十个少数民族拼凑而成的联邦。但是大约有500万人口的克伦人对新政府的沙文主义感到愤怒。一些人拿起武器,还有其他民族的叛乱分子也是如此。
When Luther and Johnny were toddling around, Myanmar soldiers had begun clearing the forest to make way for a natural gas pipeline that would bring riches to the country’s military dictatorship. The Karen who lived on the land received almost nothing.
当路德和约翰尼还在蹒跚学步时,缅甸士兵已经开始清理森林,为一条天然气管道铺路,这条管道将给缅甸的军事独裁政权带来财富。而居住在这片土地上的克伦人几乎无法得到任何东西。
As Myanmar infantrymen surged over the densely forested hills, the Karen National Liberation Army lost hundreds of soldiers. Johnny and Luther stayed to fight. They were crack shots, able to lug and steady their weapons against their small frames. They never stepped on land mines. And, villagers said, they emerged without a scratch, even as bullets flew.
当缅甸步兵出现在森林密布的山间,克伦民族解放军损失了数百名士兵。约翰尼和路德留下来战斗。他们是神枪手,拖着武器,用自己的小身板稳稳固定住它们。他们从未踩过地雷。村民们说,即使子弹飞来,他们也能毫发无伤。
“It’s like a superpower in a movie,” Johnny said. “You know that you are being shot at but the bullets don’t hit.”
“就像电影里的超能力,”约翰尼说。“你知道自己正在被扫射,但子弹不会打中你。”
God’s Army was born. The militia’s ranks were augmented by war orphans, who had nowhere else to go. Adult soldiers prayed in a circle and then lifted the twins on their shoulders during battle, like child amulets. South Korean Christians sent donations.
上帝军诞生了。这支民兵队伍里有许多无处可去的战争孤儿。成年士兵围成一圈祈祷,然后在战斗中把这对双胞胎像护身符一样扛在肩上。韩国基督徒为他们送来捐款。
“We did not drink alcohol, and we prayed every day to ask permission from God to make us safe,” said Eh Na Wah, a former God’s Army major. “We were bulletproof.”
“我们不喝酒,我们每天祈祷,请求上帝保佑我们平安,”前上帝军少校艾纳瓦(Eh Na Wah)说。“子弹打不中我们。”
But they weren’t.
但是并非如此。
Eh Na Wah was shot in a firefight in 1998, when God’s Army tried to fend off a brigade of Myanmar soldiers. Three of God’s Army men were killed in that battle. Eh Na Wah’s leg was amputated above the knee.
艾纳瓦在1998年的一次交火中被子弹击中,当时上帝军试图抵挡一个旅的缅甸士兵。在那次战斗中,上帝军有三人丧生。艾纳瓦的膝盖以上身体部位需要截肢。
In 2000, members of an extremist student group and God’s Army stormed a hospital in Ratchaburi, a Thai town not far from the border with Myanmar, and took hundreds of patients as hostages. They were desperate for medical supplies for their wounded soldiers.
2000年,一个极端学生组织和上帝军的成员在泰缅边境附近的泰国小镇叻武里府袭击了一家医院,劫持数百名患者作为人质。他们急需为受伤的士兵提供医疗用品。
The Thai army killed all the hostage takers. Luther and Johnny were not part of the raid, but God’s Army lost some of its best fighters. Within a year, the twins had surrendered to the Thai army and ended up in a refugee camp in Thailand.
泰国军队杀死了所有挟持人质的人。路德和约翰尼并没有参与这次突袭,但上帝军失去了一些最强的战士。一年内,这对双胞胎就向泰国军队投降,最终进入了泰国的一处难民营。
God’s Army was finished. The boys were not even 13.
上帝军完了。两个男孩还不到13岁。
In 2009, Luther left the refugee camp in Thailand for Sweden. He lasted a decade in Gotene, a small town with three other Karen families.
2009年,路德离开了泰国难民营前往瑞典。他在约特纳小镇和另外三个克伦族家庭一起待了十年。
One day, he went on Facebook and plugged in a common Karen woman’s name: Naw. He scrolled through the Naws, looking for one that pleased him.
有一天,他在Facebook上输入了一个常见的克伦族女性名字:瑙。他浏览着各种叫“瑙”的账号,想寻找一个他喜欢的。
For Naw Lay Kapaw Wah, living in a Karen village where Myanmar soldiers had sent inhabitants fleeing into the forest, the Facebook friend request seemed like a prank. Surely someone was impersonating Luther Htoo, one of the boy twins who had commanded God’s Army.
瑙利卡普华(Naw Lay Kapaw Wah)住在一个克伦族村庄里,缅甸士兵曾把村民们赶进森林,对她来说,Facebook上的好友请求似乎是个恶作剧。肯定是有人冒充路德·托这个指挥上帝军的双胞胎男孩之一。
It was the real Luther. He was lonely. After a couple years of online dating, she asked him to come home to Myanmar. He did two years ago. The couple now live mostly on the edge of a forest.
但那是真的路德。他很孤独。网恋几年后,她请求他回到家乡缅甸。两年前他回去了。这对夫妇如今主要生活在森林的边缘地带。
Johnny and Luther dream of a new God’s Army.
约翰尼和路德梦想着一支新上帝军的出现。
Across the country, Myanmar’s ethnic minorities continue to suffer. Damage is inflicted by both sides: a national army conditioned to target minorities and various ethnic militias that see armed struggle as a cultural obligation.
缅甸各地的少数民族仍在遭受苦难。伤害是由双方造成的:一支惯于打击少数民族的国家军队,和将武装斗争视为文化义务的各路民兵组织。
But the Htoo twins are often drunk. Both are unemployed.
但托氏双胞胎经常醉酒。两人都没有工作。
One evening, in a jungle clearing, Luther and his girlfriend’s family gathered around a cellphone to watch a video of a gospel choir.
一天晚上,路德和他女友一家在一片丛林空地上围着手机看唱诗班的视频。
Luther moved his lips with the lyrics on the screen.
路德的嘴唇随着屏幕上的歌词动了动。
“God’s boundless mercy,” he sang. “We will live another day. We will fight the good fight another day.”
“上帝慈悲无边,”他唱着。“我们会再活一天。我们会再活一天,去打一场漂亮仗。”