CHAMPHAI, India (Reuters) – When Tha Peng was ordered to shoot protesters with his submachine gun on Feb. 27 to disperse them in the city of Khampat, Myanmar, police lans corporal said he refused.
“The next day an officer called me to ask if I would like to shoot,” he said. The 27-year-old refused again and then resigned from the police force.
On March 1, he said he left his home and family in Khampat and traveled for three days, usually at night to avoid detection, before entering the northeastern state of Mizoram.
“I had no choice,” Tha Peng told Reuters through a translator on Tuesday in an interview. He gave only part of his name to protect his identity. Reuters saw its police and national ID cards confirming the name.
Tha Peng said he and six colleagues all disobeyed the February 27 order of a senior officer, whom he did not name.
Reuters could not independently verify its or other accounts collected near the Myanmar-India border.
The description of the events was similar to that given to police in Mizoram on March 1 by another police corporal in Myanmar and three officers entering India, according to a classified internal police document seen by Reuters.
Written by Mizoram police officers, the document provides biographical details of the four individuals and their account of why they fled. It was not addressed to specific people.
“As the civil disobedience movement gains momentum and protest (s) held by anti-coup protesters in various places, we are ordered to shoot at the 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 staged a coup d’état on Feb. 1 and ousted the country’s civilian government, did not respond to a request from Reuters for comment.
The junta has said it is acting with extreme restraint in dealing with what it has described as demonstrations by “riotous protesters” who accuse it of attacking police and damaging national security and stability.
Tha Peng’s is one of the first cases reported by the media of police fleeing Myanmar after ignoring orders from the military junta’s security forces.
There are daily protests across the country against the coup and the security forces have cracked down. More than 60 protesters have been killed and more than 1,800 arrested, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an advocacy group, said.
Reuters has not been able to independently confirm the numbers.
Among the prisoners is Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who headed the civilian government.
DOZENS FLIGHTS
About 100 people from Myanmar, mostly police officers and their families, have crossed a porous border into India since the beginning of the protests, according to a senior Indian official.
Several have taken shelter in Mizoram’s Champhai district, bordering Myanmar, where Reuters interviewed three Myanmar citizens who said they had served with the police.
In addition to his ID cards, Tha Peng showed an undated photo of him in a Myanmar police uniform. He said he joined the police nine years ago.
Tha Peng said police rules require protesters to either be stopped by rubber bullets or shot under the knees. Reuters was unable to verify police policy.
But he was ordered by his superiors to “shoot until they are dead,” he added.
Ngun Hlei, who said he was posted as a police officer in the city of Mandalay, said he was also ordered to shoot. He did not give a date, nor did he specify whether the order was to shoot to kill. He did not provide details of any victims.
The 23-year-old also gave only part of his full name and carried his national ID card.
Tha Peng and Ngun Hlei said they believed police were acting on behalf of Myanmar’s military known as the Tatmadaw. They have not provided proof.
According to the secret police document, Myanmar’s other four police agreed.
“… the military pressured the police, who are usually agents, to confront the people,” they said.
Ngun Hlei said he was reprimanded for disobeying orders and was transferred. He sought help from pro-democracy activists online and made his way across the road to the village of Vaphai in Mizoram on March 6.
The trip to India cost him about 200,000 Myanmar kyat ($ 143), Ngun Hlei said.
Although guarded by Indian paramilitary forces, the India-Myanmar border has a “free movement regime” that allows people to venture a few miles into Indian territory without the need for a travel permit.
‘DON’T WANT TO GO BACK’
Dal, 24, said she had worked as an agent for the Myanmar police force in the mountain town of Falam in northwestern Myanmar. Reuters saw a photo of her police ID and verified the name.
Her task was mainly administrative, including drawing up lists of people detained by the police. But as protests intensified in the aftermath of the coup, she said she had been ordered to capture female protesters – an order she declined.
Fearing jail time for being a party to the protesters and their civil disobedience movement, she said she decided to flee Myanmar.
All three said there was substantial support for the protesters within the Myanmar police.
“Within 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 of the others who have crossed over in recent days, the three are spread across Champhai, supported by a network of local activists.
Saw Htun Win, deputy commissioner of the Falam district in Myanmar, wrote last week to Champhai’s highest government official, deputy commissioner Maria CT Zuali, requesting that eight police officers who had entered India be returned to them “ to maintain friendly relations between the maintain two neighboring countries. . “
Zuali confirmed that she had received the letter, a copy of which Reuters has seen.
Zoramthanga, Mizoram’s prime minister, told Reuters his government would provide temporary food and shelter to those fleeing Myanmar, but a decision on repatriation was pending with the federal government of India.
Tha Peng said that although he missed his family, he feared returning to Myanmar.
“I don’t want to go back,” he said, sitting in a first-floor room overlooking the rolling green hills that stretch into Myanmar.
Reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal, additional reporting by Reuters staff; Editing by Mike Collett-White