“Shoot me instead,” the Myanmar nun told police to stop anti-junta protesters

Yangon Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng knelt in front of them in the dust of a city in northern Myanmar and begged a group of heavily armed police officers to spare ‘the children’ and rather take her life. The image of the Catholic nun in a simple white habit, spreading her hands, pleading with the forces of the country’s new junta as they prepared to launch protest actions, went viral and won her praise in the majority Buddhist country .

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

Her bravery in the city of Myitkyina on Monday came when Myanmar struggled with the chaotic aftermath of Aung San Suu Kyi’s army on February 1.

As protests over the return of democracy continue, the junta has done so gradually increased its use of forceuse tear gas, water cannon, rubber bullets and live rounds.

“The world was collapsing”

Protesters on Monday took to the streets of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state, with hard hats and homemade shields.

When police began to gather around them, Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng and two other nuns pleaded with them to leave.

“The police rushed them to arrest them and I was worried about the children,” she said. It was at that point that the 45-year-old nun fell to her knees.

Moments later, as she begged for self-control, police began shooting the crowd of protesters behind her.

“The children panicked and ran to the front … I could not do anything, but I prayed to God to save and help the children,” she said.

First she saw a man shot dead in front of her – then she felt the sting of tear gas.

“I felt like the world was collapsing,” she said. “I am very sad that this happened when I begged them.”

A local rescue team confirmed to AFP that two men were shot dead on the spot during the collision, although it was not confirmed whether direct or rubber bullets were used.

One of the deceased, Zin Min Htet, was laid in a glass coffin on Tuesday and transported on a golden hearse covered with white and red flowers.

Mourners raised three fingers in a symbol of resistance, while a musical ensemble of brass instruments, drummers and a bagpipe in pure white uniforms led the funeral procession.

“I thought I was dead”

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

Tens of thousands have fled their homes to displacement camps across the state – and among the organizations helping them are Christian groups.

Monday was not Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng’s first meeting with security forces. On February 28, she made a similar plea for mercy, walking slowly in riot gear to the police, sitting on her knees and begging to stop.

“I have been thinking myself dead since February 28,” she said the day she made the decision to stand up to the armed police.

On Monday, her fellow sisters and the local bishop joined her, who surrounded her as she pleaded for protesters for mercy.

“We were there to protect our sister and our people because she was endangering her life,” Sister Mary John Paul told AFP.

The city has seen regular repression by authorities since the coup, including a violent dispersal of peaceful teachers last month that sent some fugitives.

According to the monitoring group Assistance for Political Prisoners, so far more than 60 people have been killed in coup protests across the country.

Fear runs deep for Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng, but she said she must be brave and will continue to stand up for ‘the children’.

“I can not stand and watch without doing something while watching what is happening before my eyes while my whole Myanmar is mourning,” she said.