Zürcher Nachrichten - The Myanmar nun who faced down a junta

EUR -
AED 3.846458
AFN 71.211176
ALL 97.412843
AMD 406.811894
ANG 1.887241
AOA 956.640935
ARS 1051.428592
AUD 1.608171
AWG 1.887622
AZN 1.787721
BAM 1.94682
BBD 2.114156
BDT 125.138011
BGN 1.955509
BHD 0.394704
BIF 3034.333258
BMD 1.047225
BND 1.407209
BOB 7.235625
BRL 6.090347
BSD 1.047075
BTN 88.4754
BWP 14.296058
BYN 3.427092
BYR 20525.602023
BZD 2.110863
CAD 1.463847
CDF 3005.534618
CHF 0.928583
CLF 0.03695
CLP 1019.567969
CNY 7.576459
CNH 7.597437
COP 4597.630131
CRC 532.296452
CUC 1.047225
CUP 27.751452
CVE 110.613091
CZK 25.354142
DJF 186.112546
DKK 7.458821
DOP 63.25565
DZD 139.901282
EGP 52.012714
ERN 15.708369
ETB 129.23088
FJD 2.379611
FKP 0.826592
GBP 0.831973
GEL 2.853676
GGP 0.826592
GHS 16.598349
GIP 0.826592
GMD 74.352935
GNF 9037.548191
GTQ 8.083713
GYD 219.089433
HKD 8.150638
HNL 26.363899
HRK 7.470124
HTG 137.485836
HUF 411.088281
IDR 16675.428446
ILS 3.890063
IMP 0.826592
INR 88.480582
IQD 1372.387829
IRR 44093.391567
ISK 146.108348
JEP 0.826592
JMD 166.302915
JOD 0.742584
JPY 161.458939
KES 135.614106
KGS 90.595555
KHR 4241.259434
KMF 491.829597
KPW 942.501737
KRW 1466.554465
KWD 0.322158
KYD 0.872675
KZT 519.294876
LAK 22997.052059
LBP 93778.962407
LKR 304.684618
LRD 188.762185
LSL 18.965252
LTL 3.092182
LVL 0.633456
LYD 5.115689
MAD 10.486854
MDL 19.069043
MGA 4891.586326
MKD 61.525564
MMK 3401.344628
MNT 3558.469111
MOP 8.394618
MRU 41.799981
MUR 48.593488
MVR 16.179757
MWK 1817.981712
MXN 21.385321
MYR 4.675828
MZN 66.925952
NAD 18.964918
NGN 1774.186923
NIO 38.527419
NOK 11.597222
NPR 141.561038
NZD 1.78822
OMR 0.403194
PAB 1.04717
PEN 3.974207
PGK 4.216653
PHP 61.815578
PKR 291.021899
PLN 4.344987
PYG 8218.776313
QAR 3.812683
RON 4.977038
RSD 116.989628
RUB 106.083365
RWF 1435.744917
SAR 3.931627
SBD 8.750118
SCR 14.091129
SDG 629.903184
SEK 11.589368
SGD 1.409667
SHP 0.826592
SLE 23.651533
SLL 21959.781063
SOS 598.485238
SRD 37.077012
STD 21675.434737
SVC 9.162736
SYP 2631.183058
SZL 18.975788
THB 36.383713
TJS 11.152657
TMT 3.675758
TND 3.301902
TOP 2.452702
TRY 36.169354
TTD 7.108213
TWD 34.046633
TZS 2777.615603
UAH 43.232448
UGX 3869.006119
USD 1.047225
UYU 44.622895
UZS 13488.252609
VES 48.454165
VND 26623.067216
VUV 124.328608
WST 2.923423
XAF 652.945238
XAG 0.034027
XAU 0.000392
XCD 2.830177
XDR 0.798815
XOF 651.373441
XPF 119.331742
YER 261.711912
ZAR 18.966175
ZMK 9426.275251
ZMW 28.876803
ZWL 337.205892
  • RBGPF

    -0.5000

    59.69

    -0.84%

  • JRI

    0.0000

    13.23

    0%

  • BCC

    2.9500

    140.36

    +2.1%

  • SCS

    -0.0300

    13.04

    -0.23%

  • CMSC

    0.1200

    24.64

    +0.49%

  • BCE

    -0.3200

    26.68

    -1.2%

  • CMSD

    0.1850

    24.445

    +0.76%

  • RIO

    0.1800

    62.57

    +0.29%

  • GSK

    0.3500

    33.7

    +1.04%

  • NGG

    -0.1700

    63.1

    -0.27%

  • RELX

    0.6500

    45.76

    +1.42%

  • RYCEF

    0.1800

    6.79

    +2.65%

  • BTI

    -0.1000

    36.98

    -0.27%

  • AZN

    1.0600

    64.26

    +1.65%

  • VOD

    -0.1000

    8.84

    -1.13%

  • BP

    0.4400

    29.52

    +1.49%

The Myanmar nun who faced down a junta
The Myanmar nun who faced down a junta

The Myanmar nun who faced down a junta

Almost a year after she knelt in the dust to beg Myanmar police not to shoot anti-coup demonstrators, Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng still shakes at the memory of the day she says God saved her.

Text size:

A photo of the Catholic nun in a simple white habit, her hands spread, pleading with junta forces in the early weeks of mass protests against the putsch, went viral in the majority-Buddhist country and made headlines around the world.

Two people at the demonstration in early March in northern Kachin state were shot dead, with Sister Ann Rose later rushing an injured child to hospital.

In the confusion and chaos she had no idea the photo had been taken, or the impact it would have, she told AFP.

"Only when I arrived back home, I got to know that my friends and family were so worried about me," she said, adding her mother had scolded her in tears for taking such a risk.

"When I look at that photo, I can't even believe myself that I was there to save people's lives amid the chaotic shooting and running," she said.

"I believe God gave me the courage... I myself wouldn't be courageous enough to do that."

Running from the military is something Sister Ann Rose knows from her childhood in conflict-wracked Shan state in eastern Myanmar under a previous junta.

The daughter of a pastor father and a teacher mother, she was forced to flee her home when she was nine, with a fear of soldiers now imprinted in her brain that she worries is being repeated in children today.

"I used to run as a little kid when they entered the village... whenever I see soldiers and police in uniforms, I get scared, even now," she said.

But on that March day in Myitkyina "I couldn't think to be scared", she added.

"I just thought I needed to help and save the protesters."

In the following days the junta's crackdown spiralled, with Amnesty International later saying it had documented atrocities including the use of battlefield weapons on unarmed protesters.

More than 1,400 civilians have been killed and over 10,000 arrested, according to a local monitoring group.

- 'No longer have freedom' -

Sister Ann Rose has discovered there is a price to pay for publicly standing up to the junta.

She said she has been detained several times by security forces, who asked to check her phone and took photos of her.

She is not involved with politics but is now too scared to go out alone, she added.

"I no longer have freedom," the devotee said.

The nun -- who previously trained as a nurse -- now works at camps housing displaced people in Kachin state, the site of a years-long conflict between ethnic armed groups and the military.

Fighting in Kachin and elsewhere in the north of the country bordering China has lulled recently -- analysts say at Beijing's insistence -- but elsewhere horrific violence continues.

Junta troops were recently accused of a massacre on Christmas Eve after the charred remains of dozens of bodies were discovered on a highway in the east of the country.

Seeing the bloody cycle of clashes and reprisals "it feels like my heart is going to burst", Sister Ann Rose said.

But her faith gives her hope, and a sense of purpose.

"Thanks to God, I am alive... Maybe he wants to use me for good."

O.Krasniqi--NZN