The Thingyan Water Festival, part of a purification ritual to welcome the Buddhist New Year, is often marked by crowds engaging in large-scale water fights in the streets.
However, public roads in major cities were quiet on Wednesday, with no sign of the generally unsettling celebrations, news reports said.
In the former government seat of Yangon, barricades blocked the way to a stage where celebrities performed traditional songs and dancers performed as part of a program sponsored by the ruling junta.
State television footage also showed singers and musicians performing traditional Thingyan songs in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, but traditional crowds were also missing.
Meanwhile, local media showed small protests against the military junta across the country, with some activists holding banners calling for a boycott of the celebrations.
On the other hand, clashes between the army and coup opponents were reported near Myawaddy (east), where ethnic rebels clashed with junta forces.
Fighting also resumed Wednesday morning along the Asia Highway connecting Thailand and Myanmar, Karen National Union spokesman Padoh Saw Taw Nee said.
Also in northern Sagaing state, media reported that military junta troops on Tuesday broke into a post occupied by a local “People’s Defense Force,” a civilian militia that emerged to fight the military. The Southeast Asian nation has been in crisis since the military overthrew the government last year, sparking huge protests and a bloody crackdown that has left more than 1,700 people dead, according to a local surveillance group.
mgt/LP