Kneeling
before them in the dust of a northern Myanmar city, Sister Ann Rose Nu
Tawng begged a group of heavily armed police officers to spare “the children”
and take her life instead. The image of the
Catholic nun in a simple white habit, her hands spread, pleading with the
forces of the country’s new junta as they prepared to crack down on a protest, has
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 instead,”
she said on Tuesday. Her act of bravery
in the city of Myitkyina on Monday came as Myanmar struggles with the chaotic
aftermath of the military’s overthrow of the civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi,
which started on February 1. As protests demanding the return of democracy have
rolled on, the junta has steadily escalated its use of force, using teargas,
water cannon, rubber bullets and live rounds. As police started massing
around them, Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng and two other nuns pleaded with them to
leave. “The police were chasing to arrest them and I was worried for the
children,” she said. It was at that
point that the 45-year-old nun fell to her knees. Moments later, as she was
begging for restraint, the police started firing into the crowd of protesters
behind her.
Monday was not Sister Ann
Rose Nu Tawng’s first encounter with the security forces – on February 28, she made a similar plea for
mercy, walking slowly towards police in riot gear, getting on her knees and
pleading for them to stop. “I have thought myself dead already since February
28,” she said of the day she made the decision to stand up to the armed police.
On Monday, she was joined by her fellow sisters and the local bishop, who
surrounded her as she pleaded for mercy for the protesters. They stood by her to
protect her and our people because she had her life at risk. Let us pray for an
end to this struggle of power against common sense and the safety of the
innocent people and children of Myanmar. (photos from the UK newspaper 'The Guardian.')
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