FILE PHOTO: Tear fuel and hearth extinguisher fuel encompass demonstrators as they run away from police throughout a protest in opposition to the navy coup in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, March 8, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
CHAMPHAI, India — When Tha Peng was ordered to shoot at protesters together with his submachine gun to disperse them within the Myanmar city of Khampat on Feb. 27, the police lance corporal stated he refused.
“The next day, an officer called to ask me if I will shoot,” he stated. The 27-year-old refused once more, after which resigned from the power.
On March 1, he stated he left his house and household behind in Khampat and traveled for 3 days, largely at night time to keep away from detection, earlier than crossing into India’s northeastern Mizoram state.
“I had no choice,” Tha Peng advised Reuters in an interview on Tuesday, talking through a translator. He gave solely a part of his title to defend his identification. Reuters noticed his police and nationwide ID playing cards which confirmed the title.
Tha Peng stated he and 6 colleagues all disobeyed the Feb. 27 order from a superior officer, whom he didn’t title.
Reuters couldn’t independently confirm his or different accounts gathered close to the Myanmar-India border.
The description of occasions was comparable to that given to police in Mizoram on March 1 by one other Myanmar police lance corporal and three constables who crossed into India, in accordance to a categorized inner police doc seen by Reuters.
The doc was written by Mizoram police officers and offers biographical particulars of the 4 people and their account of why they fled. It was not addressed to particular folks.
“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 stated in a joint assertion to Mizoram police.
“In such a scenario, we don’t have the guts to shoot at our own people who are peaceful demonstrators,” they stated.
Myanmar’s navy junta, which staged a coup on Feb. 1 and deposed the nation’s civilian authorities, didn’t reply to a Reuters request for remark.
The junta has stated it’s appearing with utmost restraint in dealing with what it has described as demonstrations by “riotous protesters” whom it accuses of attacking police and harming nationwide safety and stability.
Tha Peng’s is among the many first circumstances reported by the media of police fleeing Myanmar after disobeying orders from the navy junta’s safety forces.
Daily protests in opposition to the coup are being staged throughout the nation and safety forces have cracked down. More than 60 protesters have been killed and greater than 1,800 detained, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an advocacy group, has stated.
Reuters has not been in a position to verify the figures independently.
Among the detainees is Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the civilian authorities.
Dozens flee
Around 100 folks from Myanmar, largely policemen and their households, have crossed over a porous border into India for the reason that protests started, in accordance to a senior Indian official.
Several have taken shelter in Mizoram’s Champhai district bordering Myanmar, the place Reuters interviewed three Myanmar nationals who stated they had served with the police.
As nicely as his ID playing cards, Tha Peng confirmed an undated {photograph} of him sporting a Myanmar police uniform. He stated he joined the power 9 years in the past.
Tha Peng stated that, in accordance to police guidelines, protesters ought to both be stopped by rubber bullets or shot beneath the knees. Reuters couldn’t confirm police insurance policies.
But he was given orders by his superiors to “shoot till they are dead,” he added.
Ngun Hlei, who stated he was posted as a police constable within the metropolis of Mandalay, stated he had additionally obtained orders to shoot. He didn’t give a date, nor specify whether or not the order was to shoot to kill. He didn’t give particulars of any casualties.
The 23-year-old additionally gave solely part of his full title and carried his nationwide ID card.
Tha Peng and Ngun Hlei stated they believed police have been appearing below orders from Myanmar’s navy, often called the Tatmadaw. They didn’t present proof.
The different 4 Myanmar police agreed, in accordance to the categorized police doc.
“…the military pressured the police force who are mostly constables to confront the people,” they stated.
Ngun Hlei stated he was reprimanded for disobeying orders and transferred. He sought assist from pro-democracy activists online and located his manner by street to Mizoram’s Vaphai village on March 6.
The journey to India value him round 200,000 Myanmar kyat ($143), Ngun Hlei stated.
Although guarded by Indian paramilitary forces, the India-Myanmar border has a “free movement regime,” which permits folks to enterprise a couple of miles into Indian territory with out requiring journey permits.
‘Don’t need to return’
Twenty-four-year-old Dal stated she had labored as a constable with Myanmar police within the mountainside city of Falam in northwestern Myanmar. Reuters noticed {a photograph} of her police ID and verified the title.
Her job was largely administrative, together with making lists of individuals detained by the police. But as protests swelled within the wake of the coup, she stated she was instructed to attempt to catch feminine protesters – an order she refused.
Fearing imprisonment for siding with the protesters and their civil disobedience motion, she stated she determined to flee Myanmar.
All three stated that there was substantial help for the protesters inside Myanmar’s police power.
“Inside the police station, 90% support the protesters but there is no leader to unite them,” stated Tha Peng, who left behind his spouse and two younger daughters, one six months outdated.
Like some others who’ve crossed in latest days, the three are scattered round Champhai, supported by a community of native activists.
Saw Htun Win, deputy commissioner of Myanmar’s Falam district final week wrote to Champhai’s prime authorities official, Deputy Commissioner Maria C.T. Zuali, asking for eight policemen who had entered India to be returned to them “in order to uphold friendly relations between the two neighbor countries.”
Zuali confirmed she had obtained the letter, a replica of which has been seen by Reuters.
Zoramthanga, Mizoram’s chief minister, advised Reuters that his administration would offer short-term meals and shelter to these fleeing Myanmar, however a choice on repatriations was pending with India’s federal authorities.
Tha Peng stated that though he missed his household he feared returning to Myanmar.
“I don’t want to go back,” he stated, sitting in a first-floor room overlooking rolling inexperienced hills that stretch into Myanmar.
EDV
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source https://infomagzine.com/shoot-til-they-are-dead-some-myanmar-police-fled-to-india-after-refusing-orders/
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