Two police members joined the 6thday of anti-coup protest in Hpa-An of Karen State on February 13th.The police members joined the protest after the protestors staged a sit-in protest from 9 am to 12 noon on east Kanthaya road in Hpa-An Township.

Since police lieutenant Khun Aung Ko Ko first broke ranks and joined protesters during a rally in Nay Pyi Taw . There has been a spate of further defections. Dramatic footage from Magwe in central Myanmar showed three riot control officers leaving their lines to defend protesters from water cannons with their shields. That was followed by 49 uniformed officers from the police department in Loikaw, the capital of eastern Kayah state, who joined a march there with a banner that read, “No military dictatorship.”

 

Two police members who joined the protest were inspired by the CDM (Civil Disobedience Movement movement. One police officer said;” The nature of Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) is that all civil servants should join it. We are just the beginning. There are many civil servants who will join us.” These were the first police defections in Karen state.