DICTATOR BO NE WIN AND BO AUNG GYI DESTROYED HISTORIC STUDENTS UNION BUILDING

INDEPENDENT ESSAY: OF MEMORY AND FORGETFULNESS

July 6, 1997

Of Memory and Forgetfulness: Remembering the 7 July 1962 Massacre of Students at Rangoon University
By Memory The 7th of July 1997 is the 35th anniversary of the massacre of about 150 Burmese students of Rangoon University by the so-called Revolutionary Council headed by General Ne Win on 7 July 1962. Four months earlier, on 2 March 1962, Ne Win's Revolutionary Council had taken over power in a military coup, overthrowing the democratically elected government of the late Prime Minister U Nu. The massacre took place on Chancellor Road of Rangoon University around 2'0 clock in the afternoon of that day. On the night of 7 July 1962 only a few hours after the massacre of the students - a blood-letting which even the British imperialists dare not and did not commit in more than 100 years of colonial rule - General Ne Win, Chairman of the Revolutionary Council addressed the nation on radio. The tone and tenor of Ne Win's address, which lasted no more than a few minutes, were arrogant, harsh and threatening. He concluded his broadcast with the following words: "If the student unrest is designed to challenge us we will respond SWORD WITH SWORD AND SPEAR WITH SPEAR". These words were uttered on radio a few hours AFTER his troops gunned down unarmed students who were peacefully demonstrating against what they considered to be oppressive hostel rules and a few hours BEFORE the historic Rangoon University Student Union Buliding was destroyed by dynamite at 5 a.m local time on 8 July 1962. A few days after the massacre and dynamiting of the Student Union Building whose halls bore the mark and resonated with the activities of a generation of stalwart student leaders who spearheaded the freedom struggle against the British colonialists - Ne Win went on a trip to Austria for "medical-checkup". Twenty-six years later in his "valedictory address" to his Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) and the nation on 23 July 1988, Ne Win continued to use the same harsh and threatening words. This speech was broadcast on Burmese radio as well as television. Referring to the disturbances of March

and June 1988 Ne Win in effect, said that some people are "learning by imitation" and that one town after another had followed the examples of others with gatherings and demonstrations against the government. He said, and I quote, ".... if the disturbances continue the Army will have to be called and I would like to inform the whole country from here that if the Army shoots it shoots to hit, it has no tradition of shooting into the air to scare". Ne Win also said in that speech that the dynamiting of the student Union building on 8 July 1962 was done not by his orders but on the orders of his then deputy Brigadier Aung Gyi. In regard to the shootings of 7 July 1962 which preceded the destruction of the Student Union building he said that as a "revolutionary leader" he had to take "responsibility" and gave the "sword with sword and spear with spear speech". General Ne Win and his cohorts did keep his promise of 23 July 1988 of "shooting straight" with a vengeance. The massacres of August and September 1988 started with the shootings on the night of 8/8/88 (in what has come to be known as the "the four eights uprising" ) in front of Rangoon City Hall. Many people estimated that in Rangoon alone, during the period of 8 to 12 August 1988, up to three thousand people might have died as a result of indiscriminate shootings that took place in those four days. During August 1988 there were also other massacres in such towns like Sagaing and Moulmein. After a brief respite in what is now almost nostalgically known as the "democracy summer" of August and September 1988 in which hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life rallied against the BSPP government in more than 40 cities and towns across Burma, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) took over on 18 September 1988. The SLORC "coup" was intended to do away with the civilian facade of BSPP rule and at the same time to shore up and save the BSPP elites. It also resulted in another huge loss of life. SLORC Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw himself once stated in an interview that five hundred "looters" were shot during and in the aftermath of the SLORC takeover. Ne Win's 23 July 1988 address to the BSPP Congress of "shooting straight" is on clear record. Videotapes of his "farewell speech" are quite easily available. But does any one know whether there are written transcripts or audio recordings of the full text of Ne Win's speech on Burmese radio of 7 July 1962? It would be of interest and significance to discern whether any person or institution has a recording of his "sword with sword, spear with spear speech" of thirty-five years ago. (In 1984 and 1985 the BSPP compiled in two volumes all the speeches Ne Win had given since 1962 under the title of The Epoch-changing, Revolutionary Speeches of the Great Burma Socialist Programme Party Chairman. but his "sword with sword, spear with spear speech" was not included in that collection.) On an international basis, the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa of March 1960 of roughly the same number of black South Africans by the then apartheid regime receive more attention, publicity and commemoration than the 7 July 1962 massacre of Burmese students of Rangoon University. The same can be said of the Tienanmen square massacre of June 1989 which occurred after the failed August-September 1988 Burmese uprising in which many more people died than in Tienanmen square. Someone once said that the struggle against tyranny is in essence a struggle of memory and remembrance against forgetfulness. It is hoped that this short piece would in a small way contribute to help alleviate any forgetfulness among persons who care about the Burmese people and their poignant struggle for basic human rights. Memory is a pseudonym. http://www.burmalibrary.org/reg.burma/archives/199707/msg00095.html