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CHAMPHAI, India (Reuters) – When Tha Peng was ordered to fire at protesters with his submachine gun to disperse them in Myanmar’s city of Khampat on February 27, the police spear corporal said he refused.
“The next day an officer called me to ask if I would shoot,” he said. The 27-year-old refused again and then forcibly resigned.
On March 1, he said he left his home and family in Khampat and traveled for three days, mostly at night to avoid detection, before crossing into Mizoram state in northeast India.
“I had no choice,” Tha Peng told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday, speaking through a translator. He gave only a part of his name to protect his identity. Reuters saw his police and national identification cards confirming the name.
Tha Peng said he and six colleagues disobeyed a February 27 order from a superior officer, whom he did not name.
Reuters was unable to independently verify his accounts or others collected near the Myanmar-India border.
The description of the events was similar to that given to the police in Mizoram on March 1 by another Myanmar police spear corporal and three officers who crossed into India, according to a classified internal police document seen by Reuters.
The document was written by Mizoram police officers and provides biographical details of the four individuals and their account of why they fled. It was not aimed at specific people.
“As the civil disobedience movement is gaining momentum and protests by anti-coup protesters in different locations, we have instructions to fire on protesters,” they said in a joint statement to Mizoram police.
“In such a scenario, we don’t have the guts to shoot our own people who are peaceful protesters,” they said.
Myanmar’s military junta, which launched a coup on February 1 and deposed the country’s civilian government, did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
The junta has said it is acting with the utmost restraint in handling what it has described as demonstrations by “unbridled protesters” whom it accuses of attacking the police and damaging national security and stability.
Tha Peng’s is one of the first cases reported by the media of police officers fleeing Myanmar after disobeying orders from the military junta’s security forces.
Daily protests against the coup are being organized across the country and security forces have cracked down. More than 60 protesters have been killed and more than 1,800 arrested, said the Association for the Assistance to Political Prisoners, an advocacy group.
Reuters has not been able to independently confirm the figures.
Among those arrested is Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the civilian government.
Dozens flee
About 100 Myanmar people, mostly police officers and their families, have crossed a porous border into India since the protests began, according to a senior Indian official.
Several have taken refuge in the Champhai district of Mizoram, on the border with Myanmar, where Reuters interviewed three Myanmar citizens who said they had served with the police.
In addition to his identification cards, Tha Peng displayed an undated photograph of him wearing a Myanmar police uniform. He said he joined the force nine years ago.
Tha Peng said that according to police rules, protesters must be detained with rubber bullets or shot below the knees. Reuters was unable to verify police policies.
But his superiors gave him orders to “shoot until they die,” he added.
Ngun Hlei, who said he was stationed as a police officer in the city of Mandalay, said he had also received orders to shoot. He did not give a date, nor did he specify if the order was to shoot to kill. He did not give details of any victims.
The 23-year-old also gave only part of his full name and was wearing his national identification card.
Tha Peng and Ngun Hlei said they believed the police were acting under the command of the Myanmar army, known as the Tatmadaw. They did not provide evidence.
The other four Myanmar police officers agreed, according to classified police document.
“… the military put pressure on the police force, who are mostly police officers to confront people,” they said.
Ngun Hlei said he was reprimanded for disobeying orders and transferred. She sought help online from pro-democracy activists and on March 6 headed to the Vaphai village of Mizoram.
The trip to India cost him around 200,000 Myanmar kyats ($ 143), Ngun Hlei said.
Although guarded by Indian paramilitary forces, the border between India and Myanmar has a “regime of free movement”, which allows people to travel a few kilometers into Indian territory without requiring travel permits.
‘I DO NOT WANT TO GO BACK’
Dal, 24, said he had worked as a police officer for the Myanmar police in the mountainous city of Falam, in northwestern Myanmar. Reuters saw a photograph of his police ID and verified the name.
His work was mainly administrative, including compiling lists of people detained by the police. But as protests mounted in the wake of the coup, he said he was ordered to try to catch the protesters, an order he rejected.
Fearing imprisonment for siding with the protesters and their civil disobedience movement, he said he decided to flee Myanmar.
All three said there was substantial support for the protesters within the Myanmar police force.
“Inside the police station, 90% support the protesters but there is no leader to unite them,” said Tha Peng, who left behind his wife and two young daughters, one six months old.
Like some others who have crossed over in recent days, all three are scattered around Champhai, supported by a network of local activists.
Saw Htun Win, Deputy Commissioner of Myanmar’s Falam District, wrote last week to Champhai’s top government official, Deputy Commissioner Maria CT Zuali, calling for the return of eight police officers who had entered India “to maintain relations friendly between the two neighboring countries. “
Zuali confirmed that he had received the letter, a copy of which has been seen by Reuters.
Zoramthanga, Mizoram’s prime minister, told Reuters his administration would provide food and temporary shelter for those fleeing Myanmar, but that the federal government of India was pending a decision on repatriations.
Tha Peng said that although she missed her family, she was afraid to return to Myanmar.
“I don’t want to go back,” he said, sitting in a first-floor room overlooking the green hills that stretch to Myanmar.
(Information from Devjyot Ghoshal, additional information from Reuters staff; edited by Mike Collett-White)
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