Activists not celebrating Thingyan
New Year holiday filled with silent acts of defiance and small protests
OPPONENTS of military rule cancelled traditional New Year festivities and showed their anger at a Feb 1 coup through silent displays of defiance and small protests across the country.
The five-day New Year holiday, known as Thingyan, is usually celebrated with prayers, ritual cleaning of Buddha images in temples and high-spirited water-dousing on the streets.
“We do not celebrate Myanmar Thingyan this year since over 700 of our innocent brave souls have been killed,” said one Twitter user named Shwe Ei.
Women wearing fine clothes for the most important holiday of the year protested yesterday holding traditional pots containing seven flowers and sprigs that are displayed at this time.
Many people painted the protesters’ three-finger salute on their Thingyan pots.
Small protests were held in numerous towns, according to images posted by media.
In some places, people set out dozens of Thingyan pots daubed with messages such as “Save Myanmar” in silent shows of opposition to the military.
There were no immediate reports of violence but information has become scarce because of the junta’s curbs on broadband Internet and mobile data services.
A spokesman for the junta could not be reached for comment.
Activists have called for similar protests throughout the holiday, which runs until Saturday, keen to maintain the momentum of their campaign.
This was the second year in a row the new year festivities were called off. Last year, it was because of the novel coronavirus.
“We cannot enjoy this year. We will celebrate once we get democracy,” said another Twitter user, Su Su Soe.
Meanwhile, Myanmar’s ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was hit with a fresh criminal charge on Monday.
The 75-year-old Nobel laureate has not been seen in public since being detained in the early hours of Feb 1 as the military deposed her government and seized power.
“Amay Suu has been charged again under Section 25 of the natural disaster management law,” lawyer Min Min Soe said after a court hearing in the capital Naypyidaw, where Suu Kyi appeared by videolink.
“She has been charged in six cases altogether – five charges in Naypyidaw and one in Yangon.”
The most serious charge Suu Kyi faces falls under Myanmar’s official secrets laws.
Min Soe said Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest in Naypyidaw, appeared in good health but it is not clear if she has any idea of the turmoil that has unfolded in Myanmar over the past two months.
In Tamu, near Myanmar’s border with India, a six-year-old girl was shot dead while walking to the shop to buy snacks on Monday morning, a local in the city said.
The military insists it is dealing proportionately with what it says are violent agitators while junta chief General Min Aung Hlaing told officials in Yangon they were “ensuring the strengthening of democracy”, state media reported. — Agencies