Demolition of Students' Union Building

Date: July 8, 1962 • Location: Yangon, Myanmar

Following student protests at Rangoon University, Burmese general Ne Win ordered the demolition of the historic students' union building.

The 1962 Rangoon University protests, also known as the 7 July Student Uprising, were a series of marches, demonstrations, and protests against stricter campus regulations, the end of the system of university self-administration, and the policy of the new military regime of General Ne Win. The main events took place in Rangoon, Burma, from 7 to 8 July 1962. On 7 July the military regime violently suppressed a student demonstration at Rangoon University attended by some 5,000 students. This resulted in the deaths of more than one hundred, and the arrest of more than 6,000 students according to unofficial sources. However, official government statements put the death toll at 15. In the morning hours of the next day, the military regime blew up the historic Rangoon University Students' Union (RUSU) building, which had been the symbol of the anti-colonial nationalism struggle since the 1920s.