The historic Rangoon University Students’ Union (RUSU) building will be rebuilt next year, according to deputy minister for education U Win Maw Htun.

“We have a plan to allocate a budget for the student union building in the next fiscal year,” U Win Maw Htun told the Lower House of Parliament on Friday.

He revealed the plan in response to the question of U Oo Hla Saw from Arakan State’s Mrauk-U Township who asked about timeframe and framework for designing separate charters for individual universities and a general charter for all universities. He also asked if the government had planned to rebuild the RUSU.

The deputy minister said his ministry was drawing up a budget for building a student union building in the original place of the previous one, and that the building would serve as a hub of student activities.

The RUSU building was demolished with dynamite at 6 am on July 8, 1962, following student protests against the government’s dissolution of university councils on the campus of Rangoon University on July 7, under the dictatorship of U Ne Win. Officially, 15 students and lecturers were killed and 27 were wounded in the military’s crackdown on the July 7 demonstration. Unofficial sources, however, claim that hundreds were killed.

Student unions under successive governments have called for the rebuilding of the RUSU. Since ex-President U Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government came to power in 2010, students and activists have publicly memorialized the July 7 event annually.

Source:
courtesy of THE IRRAWADDY

by HTET NAING ZAW

If you have any stories or news that you would like to share with the global online community, please feel free to share it with us by contacting us directly at [email protected]