Burma barely celebrated the Thingyan festival this Wednesday, which marks the Buddhist New Year, as most of the inhabitants decided not to go down to the streets to sprinkle themselves with water, as tradition indicates, while the riots continue more than a year after the coup. military.
The Thingyan festival, which is part of a purification ritual to welcome the Buddhist new year, usually generates jubilant scenes in the streets, where large crowds fight water battles.
But this Wednesday the arteries of the center of Yangon were calm, without any sign of celebration, according to AFP correspondents.
“We are not going to celebrate the water festival this year,” an inhabitant who requires anonymity told AFP. “I don’t go out (…) We are afraid that something will happen to us.”
Local media have reported on small groups demonstrating against the ruling military junta, and carrying banners urging them to boycott the festivities.
This Southeast Asian country has been in chaos since the February 2021 coup that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s government and more than 1,700 people have been killed in a crackdown on dissidents, according to a local monitoring group.
The military junta is increasingly isolated and Cambodian leader Hun Sen is the only foreign dignitary to visit the country since the coup.
The European Union and the United States, as well as countries including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, have called on the military to “cease the violence and restore the path to democracy in Burma.”
