Myanmar Cop Fled To India After Refusing “Shoot Until They Are Useless” Order

Champhai, India:

When Tha Peng was once ordered to shoot at protesters along with his submachine gun to disperse them within the Myanmar the town of Khampat on February 27, the police lance corporal stated he refused.

“The next day to come, an officer known as to invite me if I will be able to 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 circle of relatives in the back of in Khampat and travelled for 3 days, most commonly at evening to keep away from detection, sooner than crossing into India’s northeastern Mizoram state.

“I had no selection,” Tha Peng instructed Reuters in an interview on Tuesday, talking by way of a translator. He gave best a part of his identify to offer protection to his identification. Reuters noticed his police and nationwide ID playing cards which showed the identify.

Tha Peng stated he and 6 colleagues all disobeyed the Feb. 27 order from a awesome officer, whom he didn’t identify.

Reuters may now not independently examine his or different accounts accrued close to the Myanmar-India border.

The outline of occasions was once very similar to that given to police in Mizoram on March 1 by way of some other Myanmar police lance corporal and 3 constables who crossed into India, in step with a categorized interior police report noticed by way of Reuters.

The report was once written by way of Mizoram police officers and offers biographical main points of the 4 folks and their account of why they fled. It was once now not addressed to express folks.

“Because the Civil disobedience motion is gaining momentum and protest(s) held by way of anti-coup protesters at other puts we’re suggested to shoot on the protesters,” they stated in a joint observation to Mizoram police.

“In this sort of situation, we wouldn’t have the heart to shoot at our personal people who find themselves non violent demonstrators,” they stated.

Myanmar’s army junta, which staged a coup on Feb. 1 and deposed the rustic’s civilian govt, didn’t reply to a Reuters request for remark.

The junta has stated it’s performing with utmost restraint in dealing with what it has described as demonstrations by way of “riotous protesters” whom it accuses of attacking police and harming nationwide safety and steadiness.

Tha Peng’s is one of the first instances reported by way of the media of police fleeing Myanmar after disobeying orders from the army junta’s safety forces.

Day-to-day protests towards the coup are being staged around the nation and safety forces have cracked down. Greater than 60 protesters were killed and greater than 1,800 detained, the Help Affiliation for Political Prisoners, an advocacy workforce, has stated.

Reuters has now not been ready to substantiate the figures independently.

A number of the detainees is Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the civilian govt.

DOZENS FLEE

Round 100 folks from Myanmar, most commonly policemen and their households, have crossed over a porous border into India because the protests started, in step with a senior Indian authentic.

A number of have taken refuge in Mizoram’s Champhai district bordering Myanmar, the place Reuters interviewed 3 Myanmar nationals who stated they’d served with the police.

In addition to his ID playing cards, Tha Peng confirmed an undated {photograph} of him dressed in a Myanmar police uniform. He stated he joined the power 9 years in the past.

Tha Peng stated that, in step with police regulations, protesters will have to both be stopped by way of rubber bullets or shot beneath the knees. Reuters may now not examine police insurance policies.

However he was once given orders by way of his superiors to “shoot until they’re useless,” he added.

Ngun Hlei, who stated he was once posted as a police constable within the town of Mandalay, stated he had additionally won orders to shoot. He didn’t give a date, nor specify whether or not the order was once to shoot to kill. He didn’t give main points of any casualties.

The 23-year-old additionally gave best part of his complete identify and carried his nationwide ID card.

Tha Peng and Ngun Hlei stated they believed police have been performing beneath orders from Myanmar’s army, referred to as the Tatmadaw. They didn’t supply proof.

The opposite 4 Myanmar police agreed, in step with the categorized police report.

“…the army burdened the police power who’re most commonly constables to confront the folk,” they stated.

Ngun Hlei stated he was once reprimanded for disobeying orders and transferred. He sought assist from pro-democracy activists on-line and located his means by way of highway to Mizoram’s Vaphai village on March 6.

The adventure to India price him round 200,000 Myanmar kyat ($143), Ngun Hlei stated.

Despite the fact that guarded by way of Indian paramilitary forces, the India-Myanmar border has a “unfastened motion regime”, which permits folks to mission a couple of miles into Indian territory with out requiring go back and forth lets in.

‘DON’T WANT TO GO BACK’

Twenty-four-year-old Dal stated she had labored as a constable with Myanmar police within the mountainside the town of Falam in northwestern Myanmar. Reuters noticed {a photograph} of her police ID and verified the identify.

Her activity was once most commonly administrative, together with making lists of folks detained by way of the police. However as protests swelled within the wake of the coup, she stated she was once suggested to check out 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 escape Myanmar.

All 3 stated that there was once considerable make stronger for the protesters inside Myanmar’s police power.

“Within the police station, 90% make stronger the protesters however there is not any chief to unite them,” stated Tha Peng, who left in the back of his spouse and two younger daughters, one six months previous.

Like some others who’ve crossed in contemporary days, the 3 are scattered round Champhai, supported by way of a community of native activists.

Noticed Htun Win, deputy commissioner of Myanmar’s Falam district ultimate week wrote to Champhai’s best govt authentic, Deputy Commissioner Maria C.T. Zuali, requesting 8 policemen who had entered India to be returned to them “with a purpose to uphold pleasant members of the family between the 2 neighbour international locations.”

Zuali showed she had won the letter, a duplicate of which has been noticed by way of Reuters.

Zoramthanga, Mizoram’s leader minister, instructed Reuters that his management would offer brief meals and refuge to these fleeing Myanmar, however a call on repatriations was once pending with India’s federal govt.

Tha Peng stated that even though he ignored his circle of relatives he feared returning to Myanmar.

“I do not need to return,” he stated, sitting in a first-floor room overlooking rolling inexperienced hills that reach into Myanmar.

($1 = 1,400.000zero kyat)

(Except for for the headline, this tale has now not been edited by way of TTN NEWS group of workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)