Military Crackdown in Burma and the Massacres of 8/8/88.

• Author: Huffman, Franklin

Title: Military Crackdown in Burma and the Massacres of 8/8/88

Author: Franklin Huffman

The February military take-over in Burma called to mind the tragic events of 1988, while I was serving as press attache at U.S. Embassy Rangoon. During August and September that year, massive pro-democracy demonstrations resulted in the massacre of several thousand Burmese citizens at the hands of the brutal military regime. Previous attempts to throw off the shackles of totalitarianism, usually led by students, had taken place in 1962, when ruling General Ne Win's police killed several hundred students at the University of Rangoon and dynamited the historic Students' Union Building, and again in 1974, when the regime shot down several hundred students who marched in support of a general strike, arrested thousands, closed down schools and universities, and declared martial law. In 1988, there had been no major uprisings for 14 years, but astrologers were predicting that dire events would happen on the magical date of 8/8/88--the four eights of August 8, 1988.

At the embassy, we knew things were coming to a boil. There were widespread reports of students being beaten, raped and killed in the notorious Insein Prison north of Rangoon. In the ethnic minority areas, rape, beatings, looting, and the burning down of villages were commonplace wherever the Burmese army operated. The country's economy was in a shambles. In September of 1987 the regime suddenly and without explanation demonetized all 25, 35, and 75 kyat notes (whose strange denominations were established in a previous demonetization), so that people holding cash were wiped out; 80 percent of the money in circulation became worthless. Hundreds of enraged students stormed out of the prestigious Rangoon Institute of Technology, smashed traffic lights, and burned vehicles. The regime's inevitable response was to close schools and universities.

Student Demonstrations Spread

The first major outbreak of demonstrations came in March of 1988, when an incident in a teashop in which a student was killed escalated into a large-scale demonstration on March 18, later known as "Black Friday," in which thousands of students were arrested and scores of students killed by the hated Lon Htein, or riot police. In June, campus demonstrations resumed, and on June 20 thousands of students staged a peaceful protest in Rangoon, joined by some monks, demanding that dismissed students be reinstated and that those responsible for the March killings be punished. Clashes took place...