BANGKOK - Burma's military junta would punish anyone throwing ice or water
balloons during April's traditional water-throwing festival with between one and
five years in jail, a Burmese official said.-Reuters
Many people have
been injured in water-throwing festivals in the past when revelers threw
balloons or hard blocks of ice at each other rather than sprinkling the
traditional drops of water, an official at state-run Myanmar News Agency
said.
This year anyone caught with ice blocks or water balloons will be
sentenced to one year in jail while those found throwing or selling ice for the
festival will get from three to five years, the official quoted the new order as
saying.
The festival is held in mid-April in many southeast Asian
countries, including Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, to celebrate the
beginning of their new year.
Traditionally celebrants sprinkle water on
each other but nowadays the overzealous throw buckets of water or even use hoses
to spray unsuspecting passers-by
