Myanmar is boycotting a water festival to protest the junta's rule

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

YANGON—As combat between the military and coup opponents raged across the country, Myanmar's traditionally exuberant new year water celebration was characterised by silence and boycotts on Wednesday.

Since the military deposed Aung San Suu Kyi's administration last year, the Southeast Asian country has been in chaos, with massive protests and a brutal crackdown.

 

The Thingyan water festival, which is held as part of a cleansing ceremony to usher in the Buddhist new year, is usually defined by exuberant chaos as crowds engage in large-scale street water battles.

However, AFP correspondents said that central Yangon was calm on Wednesday, with no trace of the typically raucous festivities.

Residents on the other side of the street watched as a small group of people — including several youngsters and a soldier — splashed each other inside the shelter of a sandbagged guard post.

 

As part of a junta-sponsored programme, there was a substantial security presence leading to Yangon's Sule Pagoda, with barricades blocking the access to a stage where celebrities performed traditional melodies and choreographed dancers swayed.

In Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city, state television footage showed singers and musicians singing traditional Thingyan melodies.

However, the tone was gloomy there as well, as the military continues to crack down on opposition.

"This year, we have no plans to celebrate the water festival," local Zin Zin told AFP, seeking anonymity.

 

"I don't go out, and I don't care if other people are celebrating."
We're concerned in case something goes wrong."

Meanwhile, photographs from across the country revealed minor anti-junta protests, with some activists holding placards calling for a boycott of the festivities.

 

New Clashes

 

Fighting between the military and coup opponents was reported around Myanmar as junta-sponsored festivities took place.

Ethnic rebels clashed with junta troops near Myawaddy in the east on the latest day of fighting that local media sources indicate has driven hundreds fleeing across the border into Thailand in recent weeks.

 

According to Padoh Saw Taw Nee, a spokesman for the Karen National Union, which claims to represent the country's Karen minority and has fought the military for decades, fighting started Wednesday morning along the Asia Highway, which connects Thailand and Myanmar.

In recent days, junta troops had ordered additional airstrikes, he said.

According to local media, junta troops overran a post held by a local "People's Defence Force," a civilian militia that has sprung up to combat the military, on Tuesday in northern Sagaing state.

 

Following days of combat, the junta announced on Monday that its troops had expelled hundreds of anti-coup fighters and ethnic insurgents from Pinlebu town in the region.

Airstrikes had been called in to reinforce ground troops, according to a military source who spoke to AFP on the condition of anonymity. He also confirmed that intense fighting had occurred elsewhere in the region in recent days.

According to a local monitoring group, more than 1,700 individuals have been slain in a military crackdown since the coup.