Dressed in a white robe and a dark veil, Sister Ann Roza Nu Tawng knelt before the military forces of Myanmar and said to them: “You will have to pass me”.
A photo of its dramatic appeal electrified the protesters and made headlines around the world, which has seen an increasingly brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters after last month’s military coup.
At a rally in the city of Myitkyina on Monday, the 45-year-old nun told the British broadcaster Sky News that she had begged the police “not to beat, not to arrest, not to repress the protesters, because the protesters were doing nothing bad – they were just shouting slogans. ”(Sky News is owned by Comcast, the parent company of NBC News.)
Asked to leave, she refused. “The police were also kneeling and I was told they had to do this because it was to prevent the protest,” she said. “I replied, ‘No, if you want to do this, you have to come through me.’”
Moments later, tear gas was fired and shots fired.
With impaired vision, she was unable to say whether the officers she spoke to had fired or whether they were military personnel.
But as she struggled to breathe, she saw a man who had fallen on the street. She quickly realized that he had been shot.
Although he was taken to a clinic for treatment, she said he later died of his injuries. Another person died at the scene, she added.
The sister had already placed herself between the police and the demonstrators in the city on February 28.
In a separate interview for Sky News, Sister Ann Roza said that on that occasion, she “thought today is the day I will die” and had “decided to die”.
“I thought it would be better to die than many people,” she added.
The police also opened fire on the demonstrators at that demonstration and beat some of them.
Although she has survived both times, others have been less fortunate.
Thomas Andrews, a United Nations human rights investigator in the country, said on Thursday that at least 70 people have been “murdered” since the army took power on February 1 and arrested elected government leader Aung San Suu Kyi , and much of it party leadership, alleging fraud in a November election that his party won overwhelmingly.
Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics
Accusing the military junta of perpetrating murders, torture and persecution that could constitute crimes against humanity, Andrews told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that more than half of the dead were under 25. He added that more than 2,000 people had been detained illegally.
“The country of Myanmar is being controlled by an illegal and murderous regime,” he said.
The coup halted attempts at democracy in this Southeast Asian country of 54 million people, after almost 50 years of military rule, and drew hundreds of thousands to the streets.
Although Western countries have condemned military actions and some have imposed limited sanctions, generals have traditionally ignored this diplomatic pressure. They promised to hold a new election, but did not set a date.
But Sister Ann Roza said that the generals were not protecting the people, that “they have to defend themselves”.
While she promised to pray for the military and the protesters, she warned that “people are no longer safe in Myanmar, which used to be a place of happiness”.
She added that she would ask “people abroad to pray for us”.
“May God bless you,” she said. “I salute fallen souls.”