Police who defied junta ask India to grant asylum
MIZORAM, India — Police officers who disobeyed the Myanmar army’s orders to shoot opponents of the coup and escaped to India are urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government 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 driven scores, possibly hundreds, of refugees over the border into India.
One village has given shelter to 34 police personnel and a firefighter who crossed into India over the last two weeks.
Several Myanmar police officers said they fled after defying army orders to shoot opponents of last month’s coup. They spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of fears of retribution against family members still in Myanmar.
One of the defectors who didn’t share her name said Myanmar’s army ordered them to “arrest, beat, torture the protesters” and they were “always sent to the front whenever there was protest.”
“So, we have no choice but to leave our country,” she said.
The AP has not been able to independently verify their claims, though images and accounts of the security forces’ crackdown inside Myanmar have shown intensifying violence against civilians. More than 200 people have been killed by security forces since the Feb. 1 military takeover.
India’s federal government and the state of Mizoram are at odds over the influx of refugees. Earlier, the Mizoram government had allowed refugees to enter and provided them with shelter. But last week, India’s Home Ministry told four Indian states bordering Myanmar, including Mizoram, to take measures to prevent refugees from entering India except on humanitarian grounds.
The ministry said the states were not authorized to grant refugee status to anyone entering from Myanmar, as India is not a signatory to the U.N. Refugee Convention.
On Thursday, Mizoram’s top elected official Zoramthanga wrote to Modi and said “India cannot turn a blind eye” to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in his state.
Zoramthanga, who uses one name, wrote that the people of his state, who share ethnic ties with the refugees from Chin communities in Myanmar, “can’t remain indifferent to their plight.” He urged the federal government to review its order and allow refugees into India.
Earlier this month, Myanmar asked India to return the police officers who crossed the border. India shares a 1,020mile border with Myanmar.