With more and more protesters dying from police fire in Myanmar as opposition to the military junta’s coup continues, some policemen have started refusing their orders to shoot, going as far as to quit the force and flee across the border to India.
Days after Reuters reported that at least 19 policemen had crossed over into Mizoram to seek refuge, a more detailed report has emerged, with former police officers saying they were told to open fire with submachine guns onto crowds of protesters. The report says around 100 people from Myanmar, mostly policemen and their families, have crossed over into India since the protests began, quoting a senior Indian official.
Several have taken shelter in Mizoram's Champhai district bordering Myanmar, where Reuters interviewed three Myanmar nationals who said they had served with the police.
A joint statement by former Myanmar police officers, given to Mizoram police officials, says they did not want to shoot at their own people.
"As the Civil disobedience movement is gaining momentum and protest(s) held by anti-coup protesters at different places we are instructed to shoot at the protesters," they said. "In such a scenario, we don't have the guts to shoot at our own people who are peaceful demonstrators.”
The policemen said that while their own rules directed them to deploy rubber bullets against protesters or if firing lethal weapons, to aim for below the knee, their superiors ordered them to “shoot till they are dead”.
Over 50 have died in the large-scale protests that have rocked Myanmar since the February 1 coup that deposed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi. At least two of those who have died were members of Suu Kyi’s political party.
Desperation against police brutality has led to striking images going viral on social media, spreading outrage across the world. In one incident, a nun kneeled before police pleading with them not to fire upon the crowd—a request they went on to ignore, killing two.
Human Rights Watch has urged India not to deport Myanmar refugees and ethnic Rohingyas back to Myanmar, after a report that Jammu and Kashmir authorities planned to send back nearly 170 Rohingyas (The J&K administration has sent 168 Rohingyas who were illegally living in the state to jai).
“Any plan to forcibly return Rohingya and others to Myanmar will put them back in the grip of the oppressive military junta that they fled,” says Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch. “Myanmar’s long-abusive military is even more lawless now that it is back in power, and the Indian government should uphold its international law obligations and protect those in need of refuge within its borders.”
At the United Nations General Assembly, India’s stance has been that restoring democratic order in Myanmar should be the priority for all stakeholders, and has called for all detained leaders to be released.
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti made the comments on Friday at an informal General Assembly meeting on the situation in Myanmar after the military staged a coup this month.
“India shares a land and maritime border with Myanmar and has direct stakes in the maintenance of peace and stability. The recent developments in Myanmar are therefore being closely monitored by India. We remain concerned that the gains made by Myanmar over the last decades on the path towards democracy should not get undermined,” he said.
