水かけ祭り、反軍政で不参加多数 ミャンマー

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】ミャンマーの正月を祝うお祭り「ティンジャン」が１３日、始まった。例年は水かけが行われる。だが、今年は軍政と反対勢力の間で衝突が続く中、参加しないよう呼び掛ける動きもあり、最大都市ヤンゴンの大通りもひっそりしていた。（写真は水かけ祭り中にもかかわらず閑散としたヤンゴンの通り）
　ミャンマーでは、昨年２月に国軍がクーデターでアウンサンスーチー氏を追放し、大規模な抗議デモが発生。国軍はデモを厳しく弾圧しており、混乱が続いている。
　ＡＦＰ記者によると、ヤンゴン中心部の大通りは人けがなく、お祭りの気配はなかった。
　土のうで囲まれた場所で数人の子どもと１人の兵士が水をかけあっていたが、住民たちは通りの向こう側からその様子を眺めるだけだった。
　スーレー・パゴダ（仏塔）につながる通りは厳重な警備が敷かれ、国軍が主催するイベント会場に続く道にはバリケードが設けられた。ステージでは、著名人が歌を歌ったり、踊ったりしていた。
　国営テレビは、第２の都市マンダレーでもイベントが行われている様子を報じた。しかし、国軍による弾圧は続いており、街はお祭りムードからは程遠かった。
　ある住民はＡＦＰに「外には出ない。他の人が祝っているかどうか興味はない。何か起こるのではないかと思うと心配だ」と語った。
　地元メディアによると、全国で小規模な反軍政デモが行われた。祭りに参加しないよう呼び掛ける横断幕を持つ人の姿も見られた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/04/15-12:48）

Myanmar marked its normally boisterous new year water festival with silence and boycotts on Wednesday, as fighting between the military and opponents of the coup raged across the country.
The Southeast Asian nation has been in turmoil since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government last year, sparking huge protests and a bloody crackdown.
The Thingyan water festival -- part of a cleansing ritual to welcome in the Buddhist new year -- is typically marked by jubilant pandemonium as crowds engage in large-scale street water fights.
But thoroughfares in central Yangon were quiet on Wednesday, with no sign of the usually disruptive festivities, AFP correspondents said.
One small group -- among them several children and a soldier -- did indulge, splashing each other within the shelter of a sandbagged security post as residents looked on from the other side of the street.
There was a heavy security presence leading to Yangon's Sule Pagoda, with barricades barring the way to a stage where celebrities performed traditional songs and choreographed dancers swayed as part of a junta-sponsored programme.
State TV footage also showed singers and musicians performing traditional Thingyan songs in the second city of Mandalay.
But there, too, the mood was sombre as the military continues its crackdown on dissent.
We have no plan to celebrate the water festival this year, resident Zin Zin told AFP, requesting to use a pseudonym.
I do not go out, and I'm not interested whether others are celebrating. We are worried in case something might happen.
Meanwhile, local media images showed small anti-junta protests from across the country, with some activists holding banners calling for a boycott of festivities.
- New clashes -
As junta-sponsored celebrations took place, fighting between the military and opponents of the coup was reported across Myanmar.
Near Myawaddy in the east, ethnic rebels clashed with junta troops in the latest day of hostilities that local media reports say have sent hundreds fleeing across the border into Thailand in recent weeks.
Fighting resumed Wednesday morning along the Asia Highway, which connects Thailand and Myanmar, said Padoh Saw Taw Nee, a spokesman for the Karen National Union, which claims to represent the country's Karen minority and has battled the military for decades.
He added that junta troops had called in multiple airstrikes in recent days.
In northern Sagaing state, media reported junta troops had on Tuesday overrun a post held by a local People's Defence Force, a civilian militia that has sprung up to fight the military.
In a separate incident on Monday, the junta said its troops had displaced hundreds of anti-coup fighters and ethnic rebels from Pinlebu town in the region after days of fighting.
A military source who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity confirmed that airstrikes had been called in to support ground troops and that heavy fighting had taken place elsewhere in the region in recent days.
Late Wednesday the junta's foreign affairs ministry said it had lodged an objection with the United States embassy in Yangon over the State Department's annual report on human rights, which was published Tuesday.
The document -- which said there were credible reports Myanmar security forces had committed abuses including torture and extra-judicial killings -- was merely a propaganda tool to mislead... with one-sided accusations from unreliable sources, it said.
More than 1,700 people have been killed in a military crackdown since the coup, according to a local monitoring group.