MIZORAM, India (AP) – Myanmar police officers who fled to India after saying they defied orders to shoot people protesting their country’s military coup are urging Indian government not to back down and grant them asylum on humanitarian grounds.
One of the officers who took refuge in a village in the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram on the border with Myanmar said they would not return to their country until problems there are resolved.
That officer and others speaking with The Associated Press did so on condition of anonymity out of concern for the safety of family members still in Myanmar.
Another officer on the run told AP that soldiers ordered them to “arrest, beat, torture the protesters” and said police were always sent to the front when there was protest. She said the agents had “no choice” but to leave Myanmar.
The security problem following the February 1 coup in Myanmar has forced dozens of refugees across the border to IndiaIndia’s state and federal authorities have not provided figures, but some ministers have said the number could be in the hundreds. An Indian village has sheltered 34 police personnel and a firefighter who crossed India in the past two weeks.
The AP has not been able to independently verify their claims that they were ordered to shoot at protesters, although footage and reports of the crackdown by Myanmar’s security forces show that violence against civilians was on the rise. More than 200 people have been killed by security forces since the coup.
The Federal Government of India and the State of Mizoram are at odds with the influx of refugees. Previously, Mizoram’s government had allowed refugees and provided them with food and shelter.
But last week, India’s Interior Ministry told four Indian states bordering Myanmar, including Mizoram, to take measures to prevent refugees from entering India, except on humanitarian grounds.
The ministry said states were not empowered to grant refugee status to anyone entering from Myanmar, as India has not signed the 1951 UN Refugee Convention or the 1967 Protocol.
On Thursday, Zoramthanga, Mizoram’s senior elected official, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying, “India cannot turn a blind eye” to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in its state.
Using one name, Zoramthanga wrote in the letter that the people of his state, who share ethnic ties with the refugees from Chin communities in Myanmar, “cannot remain indifferent to their plight.” He urged the federal government to reconsider its order and allow refugees into India.
Earlier this month, Myanmar asked India to return the police officers who crossed the border. India shares a 1,643-kilometer border with Myanmar and is home to thousands of Myanmar refugees in various states.