Nun's efforts to stop Myanmar violence goes in vain

A nun knelt down in front of policemen in a northern Myanmar town and pleaded with them in an attempt to stop shooting the protesters who were upset against last month’s deposition. Ultimately, however, she did not succeed and everything went in vain.

A video showed Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng in a white robe and black habit kneeling down on a street in the town of Myitkyina on Monday, speaking to two policemen and trying to stop them against shooting, who in guilt was also kneeling.

“I begged them not to hurt the protesters, but to treat them kindly like family members,” she told Reuters in a telephone interview. “I told them that they can kill me, I am not standing up until they give their promise that they will not brutally crackdown on protesters.”

Twang, who features a clinic within the town, said she had received a word from the senior officers that they were just trying to clear the road.

One of the policemen and Tawng were captured touching their foreheads to the ground through the gunfire started soon afterward and all her efforts went in vain.

“We heard loud gunshots and saw that a young kid’s head had exploded, and there was a river of blood on the street,” Tawng said. She and other witnesses said that at least two protesters were killed and several others were injured.

A military spokesman and police in Myitkyina did not respond to any of the requests for restraining. Tawng tried to bring some of the victims to her clinic and cure them before she herself was blinded by tear gas.

“Our clinic floor became a sea of blood,” she said. “We need to value life. It made me feel so sad.” The local media reported that the nun also tried to come between the protesters and the police lines the previous month, pleading for peace and harmony.

Over 60 people are killed and quite 1,800 detained in the repression of protests against the deposition, an advocacy group has said.