伝統の巻きスカートで治安部隊を足止め　ミャンマー

【ヤンゴンＡＦＰ＝時事】ミャンマーの路上で物干しロープに巻きスカートがつるされた様子は一見、何の変哲もない光景に見える。だが女性の衣服にまつわる昔からの迷信が、抗議デモの鎮圧を図る治安部隊の動きを阻止しているようだ。（写真はミャンマーのヤンゴンで、路上に張った物干しロープに伝統衣装のロンジーをつるし、バリケードにする抗議デモの参加者ら）
　２月１日のクーデターで軍部が文民政府を追放し、権力を奪取して以来、ミャンマーは大きな混乱状態にある。巻き起こった大規模な抗議デモの鎮圧に、軍事政権はますます武力行使を強化している。軍が使用しているのは催涙ガス、閃光（せんこう）発音筒（スタングレネード）、ゴム弾、そして時には実弾さえある。
　これに対してデモ隊は、創意に富んだ独自の戦術で応戦している。その最新戦術の一つが、街路を横切るように張った物干しロープに、女性の下着や伝統衣装の長いスカート「ロンジー」をつり下げることだ。
　ミャンマーでは古くから、女性の下半身やそれを覆う衣服は、男性から「ｈｐｏｎｅ」と呼ばれる力を奪ってしまうと言われている。
　活動家のティンザー・シュンレイ・イー氏はＡＦＰに「女性のロンジーの下をくぐると、彼らの『ｈｐｏｎｅ』が破壊されるのです」と説明した。軍兵士の中には、武運を損なうことを恐れて、女性のロンジーに触りたがらない者もいる。
　ティンザー・シュンレイ・イー氏は「住民がロンジーをロープにつり下げていると、（警官や兵士は）街頭に出動したり、それを横切ったりすることができず、（ロンジーを）引きずり下ろさなければならないのです」と語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/03/10-14:00）

Sarong-like cloths strung out on lines may seem innocuous, but long-held superstitions around women's clothes appear to have stopped security forces in their tracks as they move to quell an uprising against Myanmar's junta.
The country has been in uproar since the military ousted the civilian government and seized power on February 1, triggering mass protests that the junta has sought to quash with increasingly lethal force.
They have used tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and sometimes even live rounds against protesters, who are responding with imaginative tactics of their own.
The latest involves hanging women's undergarments and long skirts -- or longyis -- on a clothesline across the street.
According to old Myanmar traditions, women's lower parts and the garments that cover them can sap power -- known as hpone -- from men.
If they go under a women's longyi, that means their hpone is destroyed, activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi told AFP.
Some soldiers are unwilling to touch a women's longyi for fear that it could hurt their chances on the frontlines.
When the community hang the longyi above the rope, (police and soldiers) can't go in the streets, they can't cross it, and they have to take it down, said Thinzar Shunlei Yi.
Women are now wielding the superstition as a defensive strategy.
Swooping clotheslines of longyis and knickers have suddenly decorated Yangon, from the buzzing San Chaung township to the city's rural outskirts, where pictures shared on Facebook showed a soldier standing atop a truck to remove one.
Some of the longyis also have images of junta leader Min Aung Hlaing's face pasted on them, in a further superstitious ploy.
He features prominently on posters plastered onto the ground across the commercial hub -- protesters believe it could slow security forces reluctant to step on his portrait.
- 'Delay the violence' -
Yangon has completely transformed since the coup.
Massive makeshift barricades are now commonplace, with communities stacking bricks, old tyres, tables and barbed wire to prevent authorities from entering their districts.
Some neighbourhoods descend into chaos daily as now-seasoned demonstrators take to the streets in defiance of truckloads of police and soldiers.
Plastic bags full of water -- to help diminish the sting of tear gas in the air -- are distributed in hotspots of unrest.
Designated people also carry buckets of water full of soaked blankets, ready to wrap them around gas canisters, while others hold mirrors as shields to confuse their attackers.
As they flee security forces bearing down on them, they release plumes from fire extinguishers to gain precious time -- scattering to pre-arranged escape routes.
Even with all their ingenuity -- thanks to some tactics borrowed from Hong Kong and Thailand's pro-democracy movements -- the field remains unequal, said Thinzar Shunlei Yi.
We stay on our own principle, which is non-violence... we need to delay that violence to us to make sure we have less injuries from them.
Since the coup, more than 50 civilians have been killed, according to the UN, with images showing security forces firing into crowds, leaving blood-covered bodies with bullet wounds in their heads.
One 19-year-old demonstrator, Kyal Sin, was shot dead in Mandalay on Wednesday, the bloodiest day since February 1.
The junta has denied responsibility for loss of life in the protests, with state media on Friday saying death cases due to small firearms are not associated with the security forces.