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Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng still shakes at the memory of the day she believes God spared her when she knelt in the soil to beg Myanmar police not to fire anti-coup demonstrators.
In the early weeks of enormous protests against the putsch, a photo of a Catholic nun in a plain white habit pleading with junta forces went viral in the majority-Buddhist country and made international news.
Sister Ann Rose rushed an injured kid to the hospital after two persons were shot dead during a demonstration in northern Kachin state in early March.
She had no clue the photo had been taken or the impact it would have in the midst of the commotion and chaos, she told AFP.
“It wasn’t until I went home that I realised how concerned my friends and family were about me,” she added, adding that her mother had admonished her for taking such a risk.
“I can’t believe I was there to save people’s lives amid the chaos of gunfire and fleeing,” she said.
“I believe God gave me the strength to do it… I wouldn’t have the courage to do it myself.”
Sister Ann Rose spent her childhood in the conflict-torn Shan area of eastern Myanmar, where she was raised under a previous dictatorship, fleeing the military.
She was forced to flee her house when she was nine years old, imprinting in her brain a dread of troops that she fears is being replicated in today’s children.
“When they visited the area as a small child, I used to run… I still get afraid anytime I see troops and police in uniforms,” she added.
“I couldn’t fathom to be terrified” on that March day in Myitkyina, she added.
“All I wanted to do was help and save the demonstrators,” she said.
The junta’s crackdown grew in intensity over the next few days, with Amnesty International later reporting that it had recorded abuses involving the use of military weaponry on unarmed protestors.
According to a local monitoring group, more least 1,400 civilians have been killed and more than 10,000 imprisoned.
‘I don’t have any more freedom,’ says the speaker.
Sister Ann Rose has learned that boldly defying the junta comes with a price.
She claimed that security forces had held her on multiple occasions, asking to check her phone and photographing her.
She isn’t interested in politics, but she admits that she is now afraid to go out alone.
The devotee stated, “I no longer have freedom.”
The nun, who formerly worked as a nurse, now works in Kachin state, where ethnic armed groups and the military have been at odds for years.
Fighting in Kachin and other parts of the country bordering China has slowed recently, observers say at Beijing’s request, but awful carnage persists elsewhere.
After the charred remains of dozens of people were discovered on a highway in the country’s east, Junta troops were reportedly accused of a Christmas Eve massacre.
Sister Ann Rose noted that seeing the horrific cycle of conflicts and retaliation “feels like my heart is going to burst.”
Her faith, on the other hand, provides her with optimism and a sense of purpose.
“I am alive, thanks to God… Perhaps he intends to utilise me for good.”
