Remembering 7th July 1962....
July 7, is the anniversary of students killed by Ne Win’s army in 1962. On, 8
th July 1962, army blew up student union building killing many students inside.
It is a very dark day Burmese students will never forget. Twenty years later, in 1983, RASU students made the following cover picture for annual university magazine.
Only a few people knew this happened. Rangoon University annual magazine cover of 1983-84 was designed by students in the memory of students died when government troops shot demonstration in 1962.
The cover did not show anything controversial if you do not look carefully. There are many hidden parts both in background and objects.
Back cover looks clean and plain but it was said that there were also parts with special meanings. The university authorities stopped selling the magazines within a few days.
Background story:
year 1962
On July 7th, the university students held a meeting in response to the government's actions, and demonstrated in the university compound. Such a continuing expression of dissent was intolerable for Ne Win. A police security
group came to scatter the demonstrators with the tear gas, and arrested the All-Burma Students Union Chairman, Ko Thet, as well as the University Students Union Chairman, Ko Swe Lay.
Gen. Ne Win Slaughters Unarmed Burmese Youth. Then the abominations began. At about 5:00 pm, two army trucks came into the University compound. The soldiers jumped out and began shooting down the students. Ne Win?s crony General Sein Lwin, who titled himself ?The Lion?, led this disgraceful terrorist operation against the unarmed, innocent students.
Infantry Unit #4 was given the order to shoot. For three minutes, all you could hear was shooting, shouting, screaming, glass breaking, people running, bullets hitting the wall, and the wounded students moaning, as if the world was on fire. Other students heard the gunfire and started to run away, but the soldiers started shooting again, until the dead bodies began to pile up around the compound. Thus, the helpless Burmese students, running for their lives, were grudgingly and cruelly shot down by their own army.
Even at the great battle in front lines of war, those soldiers could not see such a pile of dead and wounded enemies. In this case, about 200 students died. But the government, ashamed, announced that only 15 students had died, with 27 wounded.
On July 8th, to be sure that the students had gotten the message, the army also blew up the Student Union Building. It came down with a loud explosion of army mines. Along with the building, Ko Kyaw Win of Myaung Mya, who had been hiding himself in the building, died.
When the University was finally reopened, the students who lost arms or legs, who were shot in the face or in the stomach, arrived at school with bandages still covering their wounds. Later these students were sent to other universities, and we lost contact with many of them. Some died from their wounds. 
