When the military – or Tatmadaw – seized power in 1962, students at what was then Rangoon University organised a series of demonstrations against the junta’s policies. In what would become a grimly familiar pattern, these were violently suppressed by the new ruler General Ne Win, who had studied, but failed to get a degree, at the institution.
It is the university’s involvement in the events of 1988 though that are most keenly seared into the nation’s consciousness.
