“Shoot me instead,” the Myanmar nun tells police about to crack down on anti-junta protesters

Yangon – Kneeling before them in the dust of a northern Myanmar city, Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng pleaded with a group of heavily armed policemen to spare “the children” and take her life. The image of the Catholic nun in a simple white habit, with open hands, pleading with the forces of the country’s new junta as they prepared to suppress a protest, went viral and won its praise in the country with a Buddhist majority.

“I got down on my knees … begging them not to shoot and torture the children, but to shoot me and kill me,” she told AFP on Tuesday.

His act of bravery in the city of Myitkyina on Monday came at a time when Myanmar struggles with the chaotic consequences of the military overthrow of civil leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1.

While protests demanding a return to democracy continued, the junta constantly escalated the use of force, using tear gas, water cannon, rubber bullets and live shots.

“The world was collapsing”

Protesters took to the streets of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state, on Monday wearing homemade helmets and shields.

When the police began to crowd around them, Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng and two other nuns begged them to leave.

“The police were chasing to arrest them and I was concerned about the children,” she said. It was then that the 45-year-old nun fell to her knees.

Moments later, as she pleaded for moderation, the police began shooting at the crowd of protesters behind her.

“The children panicked and ran forward … I couldn’t do anything, but I was praying that God would save and help the children,” she said.

First she saw a man with a gunshot to the head falling dead in front of her – then she felt the tear gas sting.

“I felt like the world was collapsing,” she said. “I am very sad that it happened while I was pleading with them.”

A local rescue team confirmed to AFP that two men were shot dead at the scene during Monday’s clash, although they did not confirm whether live cartridges or rubber bullets were used.

On Tuesday, one of the deceased, Zin Min Htet, was placed in a glass coffin and transported in a golden hearse covered in white and red flowers.

The mourners raised three fingers in a symbol of resistance, while a musical ensemble of wind instrument players, drummers and a piper in immaculate white uniforms led the funeral procession.

“I already thought I was dead”

Kachin, the northernmost state in Myanmar, is home to the Kachin ethnic group and the site of a years-long conflict between armed and military ethnic groups.

Tens of thousands have fled their homes for IDP camps across the state – and among the organizations that have helped them are Christian groups.

Monday was not Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng’s first meeting with the security forces – on February 28 she made a similar plea for mercy, walking slowly towards the police in shock equipment, getting on her knees and begging for stop.

“I already thought he had died since February 28,” she said of the day she made the decision to confront the armed police.

On Monday, she was accompanied by her sisters and the local bishop, who surrounded her as she pleaded for mercy for the protesters.

“We were there to protect our sister and our people because she had her life on the line,” Sister Mary John Paul told AFP.

The city has seen frequent crackdowns by authorities since the coup, including a violent dispersion of peaceful teachers in the past month that has caused several to go into hiding.

So far, more than 60 people have been killed in anti-coup demonstrations across the country, according to the monitoring group of the Association of Assistance to Political Prisoners.

The fear is profound for Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng, but she said she must be brave and will continue to defend “the children”.

“I can’t stand looking and doing nothing, seeing what is happening before my eyes while all Myanmar is suffering,” she said.