On the evening of July 7 in 1962, soldiers led by Lieutenant-Colonel Sein Lwin of the then General Ne Win’s military regime carried out a bloody crackdown on student protests on the Rangoon University campus in Yangon.
The government announced that 16 students were killed and 86 injured. Eyewitnesses, however, said that more than 100 were killed. The July 7 crackdown also led to the dynamiting of the Student Union building on the campus – a historic building that had played an important part in Myanmar’s independence struggle – the next day, as Gen. Ne Win said he had suspected it was a hotbed of rebel associates, referring to communists.
Known as the “July 7 Crackdown,” the massacre and demolishing of the building go down in Myanmar’s modern history as one of the regime’s most brutal crackdowns on the student movement.
In 2012, The Irrawaddy’s English Edition Editor Kyaw Zwa Moe had a chance to talk to U Hla Shwe, who was a secretarial member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions during the July 7 crackdown. He narrowly escaped the bloody crackdown that day. At the time, he was an editor of “Oway Magazine” published by the Rangoon University Student Union. U Hla Shwe was arrested six times since 1959, spending 24 years in prison for his political activism. He died of COVID-19 in July 2021 at the age of 84.
In this commemorative report for the 62nd anniversary of the July 7 crackdown, The Irrawaddy is publishing a conversation between Kyaw Zwa Moe and U Hla Shwe. During the interview at U Hla Shwe’s Yangon home 12 years ago, they discussed the role played by student unions in Myanmar’s politics and what role they can play to encourage reforms. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Kyaw Zwa Moe: You were a student union leader in 1962. There were protests on July 7 that year. At about 5 am the next day, the Rangoon University Student Union Building was blown up. What happened that day?
U Hla Shwe: The regime didn’t dynamite the student union building because of the student protests the day before. The main reason for blowing up the building was that when the military staged a coup in March of that year, all the political parties in the country were silent. Only the student unions spoke out.
KZM: The political parties supported the coup?
HS: Yes. They were silent about the [junta’s] killings. Student unions, student movements and student leaders have a long history. Since the first student strike in 1920, students never wanted to be a threat to political power. Students did not organize to take political power. We only demanded peace, fundamental human rights and democracy, for which we have struggled and made sacrifices.
The Irrawaddy’s interview with U Hla Shwe in July 2012
KZM: You said political parties were silent about the coup then. So, is it fair to say the regime viewed students as its main enemy after they protested?
HS: We protested when the civilian government was forced to transfer power to the Myanmar military for six months the first time. We also protested when power was transferred to the military the second time by amending Article 116 of the 1947 Constitution … and we protested the military coup in 1962.
Political parties like the Myanmar Socialist Program Party and others emerged in fresh form after the coup. Some parties, especially the major left-wing political party, the National United Front, openly supported the coup.
No one was with us. Even after the killing [of university students], they were still silent. No one spoke out. Only a peace group led by Thakhin Kodaw Hmaing spoke out. Thakhin Kodaw Hmaing called it a tragic event in Myanmar’s history.
KZM: Where were you when the student union building was blown up? How did you hear the news?
HS: Two weeks beforehand we had scheduled a meeting of students on July 6 [to discuss] the 22 hostel regulations imposed by the Ne Win regime. At the time, they were even stricter than those in prison.
I had been at Mandalay Hostel since my second year [and] served as the secretary and chairman of the hostel management. All the students there behaved well. The regime limited the time for tea, lunch and dinner, baths, access to electricity and going outside. Students were not allowed to visit each other’s rooms after 9 pm. So, they were not happy.
Unfortunately, the electricity went out on the night of July 6. As you know, it is usual for students to make a commotion when the electricity goes off. But that night, students were furious, and they broke book shelves, desks and beds and threw them to the ground and burned them. Then, they made torches and marched in circles around the university campus for the whole night [in protest].
We waited at the gates and told the [protesters] not to go outside of the university campus. They dispersed only at around 3 am. The meeting had started at 11 am [on July 6] and ended at 1 pm the following day. It ended peacefully and students dispersed. Only three student union leaders spoke at the meeting, explaining why they opposed the new hostel regulations.
Myanmar military soldiers came to arrest us at 2 pm [on July 7]. Security forces then known as the special police, and police from the special branch, entered the university campus from Thaton Street and University Avenue. The three student leaders who spoke at the meeting – Ko Tin Tun, Ko Thet and Ko Ba Shwe Lay – were arrested. Tensions arose after the arrests and students returned to the student union building from their hostels. When the police came to arrest us, we fled and went into hiding.
I was hiding in Marlar Hostel and left there around 7 pm. Student leader Ko Tun Kyi and I stayed overnight on Kan Lan Street near Inya Lake. We could feel how powerful the explosion was from there. We went to bed at around 1 am [on July 8]. I was awakened by the loud noise. At first, I didn’t know what was happening. I had not expected that they would do it.
Ko Tun Kyi was older than me. He was already a doctor. I saw him weeping, and I was shocked. I asked him what happened. He said they must have destroyed our student union building. The impact of the explosion was so strong that I woke up.
KZM: What happened next?
HS: There were around 60 student leaders [at Pinya Hostel]. They were key student leaders, especially those from All Burma Federation of Student Unions (known by the Burmese acronym as Ba Ka Tha) and the Confederation of University Student Unions (known by the Burmese acronym as Ta Ka Tha), gathered at Pinya Hostel. We discussed how to respond in the East, West, North and South districts of Yangon. Then, we dispersed.
KZM: Did you go to see the student union building after it was blown up?
HS: We couldn’t go. The military opened fire from 6.15 pm [on July 7]. They fired wherever they saw lights on in the university campus.
KZM: Were students inside the student union building on July 8? How many were killed?
HS: Nobody knows exactly. Only the then-regime knows.
I issued three demands on the 50th anniversary of the July 7 event. The first demand is that an investigation committee be formed with fair-minded representatives and the results of their investigation made public. The second demand is that the student union building be rebuilt and used as a museum of the student movement in Myanmar. The third demand is for the July 7 monument erected by student leaders to be rebuilt. The monument was destroyed by the authorities in 1963.
KZM: People have been talking about the culprit responsible for dynamiting the student union building. General Ne Win and Brigadier-General Aung Gyi were named as the main culprits. Brig-Gen Aung Gyi said in his books that he had received approval from Gen. Ne Win to dynamite the building. Who do you think was the main culprit?
HS: Whenever we talk about the July 7 incident … there is a rumor among people who talk about the 7 July incident [that] if Gen. Ne Win is the No. 1 culprit, then Brig-Gen Aung Gyi is the No. 2 … and if Brig-Gen Aung Gyi is the No. 1 culprit, then Gen. Ne Win is the No. 2. If you ask me, I believe this.
But objectively, there was a commanding unit in the military then. It consisted of Major Kyaw Soe, the chairman of the national security and administration committee, a role similar to the prime minister. Another man is Lieutenant-Colonel Sein Lwin. He was not a member of the commanding unit. His troops were deployed outside Yangon University to curb the students. He was the head of either Battalion 4 or Battalion 5 … I don’t remember clearly … but both battalions provided personal security for Gen. Ne Win. He was responsible for the shooting.
KZM: That’s why Sein Lwin earned the name “Butcher of Yangon.”
HS: Yes, it is. He directly commanded the troops on the ground and gave the order to shoot.
KZM: Student unions have been banned since the destruction of the student union building in 1962. They emerged again only decades later, in 1988, but they were unofficial. Still, when a student union issued a statement in 1988, it had considerable influence on students. Twenty years later, how much influence do you think student unions retain?
HS: Since the 1920 student strike, student unions, student leaders and student movements have been at the forefront of the fight against colonial rule. This is history. We are not exaggerating this because we participated in student movements. Student unions, student leaders and student movements were at the forefront of Myanmar’s independence struggle. They were also at the forefront of the peace process and the fight against the military dictatorship after independence.
Over the 63 years since independence, the main problems were civil war and the military dictatorship. We students risked lives and imprisonment to end the civil war and the military dictatorship. Student unions have a long history. The agitator of Myanmar’s independence struggle was student unions. The first political generation of Myanmar [citizens] who led Myanmar’s independence struggle between 1906 and 1948 came from student unions. The Dobama Asiayone [We Burmese Association] and the General Council of Burmese Associations were not yet formed.
Gen. Aung San, Dr Hla Shwe, Thakhin Nu, U Kyaw Nyein, U Ba Swe and so on were from the first political generation. They led the student movement first, before leading the nationalist movement and the independence struggle. In our time, students engaged in the struggle for peace and democracy. Student unions have never asked for power.
Why have they killed students? We have not been allowed to organize a memorial for July 7 over the past 50 years. [Authorities] still ban a memorial. Why are they so afraid of student unions and student movements? Students are a popular force. People are behind the students. Military regimes in successive periods fear that students and people will cooperate and threaten their grip on power.
KZM: Students were at the forefront of the independence struggle and the fight against military dictatorship. But it is the politicians who take the lead role in the political movement. In 1988, students led the pro-democracy protests. But it was the political parties, including the National League for Democracy, that worked for political reforms. You also established a political party called The People’s Progressive Party. Politicians take over responsibility from students. There have been some political changes today [in 2012]. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is in the Parliament, and the government is not entirely a military government. There have been reforms. What role can student unions play now?
HS: If we compare now with the parliamentary democratic period before the 1962 coup … you can see there has been repression since 1988. There has been no space for student unions and the opposition since 1988. Only a few dissidents can speak out under [such] harsh repression. As you know, universities are built in remote places. It takes hours to get to a university. This is not coincidental.
They separate students so that they can easily suppress them. Students today face harsher repression than we did. Back in our time, university degrees did not guarantee a job either, but things are worse today. University students need to pay extra tuition now. Back in our time, there was no tuition.
We should not view students just as they are. They are the new generation. Both the government, the Union Solidarity Development, and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi must understand this. Students are the new generation who will shape the future of Myanmar. They will serve as teachers, doctors and so on. Holding a hostile attitude toward them amounts to [undermining] the future of your country. We can’t view them as an enemy. We have to hand over the military and political responsibilities to this new generation.
Military chiefs talk as if it is the Myanmar military that loves the country most. This is wrong. People just dare not to complain about it for fear of reprisal. The new generation must be able to learn peacefully and live well. But, the civil war has not yet ended and we have yet to enjoy full democracy. Many people live in grinding poverty. Many poor families in urban areas survive on just 1,000 kyats for a meal. You can see extremely crowded buses at the north-south Dagon junction in the evenings. The country can’t be more primitive.
