Ever since taking dozens of people hostage in a Thai hospital 12 months ago, Johnny and Luther Htoo's ragtag militia, God's Army, has captured the imagination of the west.
These ardent Christian child warriors - thought to be barely more than 13 years old - with allegedly supernatural powers were seen as bravely standing up to the Burmese and Thai armies in their quest for a homeland for the Karen people.
The deeper truth is that the boys were driven to their desperate acts by the unrelenting pressure of constant military bombardment by both the Thais and Burmese.
The struggle continues
The folly at the hospital in Ratchaburi, where all the hostage-takers were murdered by Thai commandos, was the last roll of the dice by a movement on the brink of elimination.
But the fall of Johnny, Luther and God's Army does not mean that the wider Karen struggle for an independent homeland along the Thai-Burmese border, which began 52 years ago, has come to an end.
The Karen, variously Buddhist, Buddhist-animist and Christian, fought alongside the British against the Japanese in the second world war but received no reward for their efforts.
Since Burmese independence they have never really lived in peace.
Although eclipsed in fame by the twins, the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) are much larger organisations and still very much alive, if not that well.
Both have suffered extremely heavy losses in the past few years as the onslaught against them has intensified.
But some analysts believe that the defeats have actually transformed them, particularly the KNU, into much more effective fighting forces. Instead basing itself in big camps susceptible to attack, the Karen resistance now concentrates on hit-and-run raids.
A typical recent example was an attack at the end of last year on half a dozen illegal sawmills deep inside Burma.
Not only do they have to contend with the official armies, the Karen also constantly suffer at the hands of the myriad armed narcotics gangs taking their wares across the Burmese border into Thailand.
It is thought that one of these gangs was responsible for the murder of six Thai villagers on December 30, although the Burmese and the Thais have tried to blame the KNU.
The KNU responded immediately with a strong condemnation of the killing in a statement which also summarised the movement's goals. "Together with the Burmese democratic forces and the non-Burman ethnic nationalities," it said, "we, the KNU, are struggling for freedom and democracy, against the ruthless military dictatorship, in order to establish a peaceful and friendly Burma for all the neighbours of the country, and will always oppose tyranny, oppression and terrorism against the innocent people".
Refugee camps
The most visible legacy of all this oppression is the 150,000 Karens (out of an ethnic population of about 7m) living in appalling conditions in refugee camps in Thailand.
Recent research shows that tens of thousands of them have malaria, tuberculosis is rife and HIV and Aids are starting to take a grip.
Foreign aid does reach the camps on a periodic basis but there are no signs of a long-term solution anywhere in sight.
The same can be said for the main independence struggle. The Karen receive next to nothing by way of international support for their cause as they get squeezed into an ever smaller area.
Their plight could well deteriorate further once the new Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, takes office and seeks to strengthen relations with Rangoon.
But despite their invisibility to most of the wider world, the Karen people show no signs of giving up their fight.
