Myanmar refugees flee from unrest, seek asylum in India
MIZORAM, India — Police officers who defied the Myanmar army’s orders to shoot opponents of the coup and escaped to India are urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to not send them back and to provide them political asylum on humanitarian grounds.
“What we wish is that until and unless the problem is solved in Myanmar, we do not want to go back there,” said one of the men, who has sought refuge in a village in the northeastern state of Mizoram that shares the border with Myanmar.
The military crackdown in Myanmar has forced scores of refugees over the border into India. India’s state and federal authorities haven’t given any figures, but some state ministers have said there could be hundreds.
One Indian village has given shelter to 34 Burmese police personnel and one firefighter who crossed into India over the last two weeks. Several of the officers say they fled after defying army orders to shoot opponents of last month’s coup. They spoke to an Associated Press journalist on condition of anonymity because of fears of retribution against their family members still in Myanmar.
One of the defectors from the Myanmar police, who didn’t share her name, said the army ordered officers to “arrest, beat, torture the protesters” and they were “always sent to the front whenever there was [ a] protest.”
“So, we have no choice but to leave our country,” she said at an undisclosed location bordering Myanmar.
More than 200 people have been killed by Myanmar forces since the Feb. 1 military takeover.