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NATIONAL COALITION GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION OF BURMA

Statement on 37th Anniversary of the 7th July Day

1. The killing of more than 100 Rangoon University students and the
demolition of the historic Students Union building were the inhuman and
foolhardy acts of Bo Ne Win military clique. The mass killing of more than
100 students at the same time and place was the most serious crime of high
treason. The demolition, without reason, of the historic Students Union
building, which was part of the memorials to the struggle for independence,
was treason against the nation. The military clique, which has committed
high treason, continues to commit criminal acts, up to this day. We have no
doubt that the people will continue to remember the bloodstained day of the
7th July, to the end of the world. 
2. Since the 7th of July 1962, the military clique has been launching, one
after another, campaigns of suppression and murder of the students. In like
manner as it has been killing the students in towns and cities brazenly, it
has been killing the students after driving them into the jungle, without
the knowledge of the people.  It has closed the doors to the schools but
kept the doors to prisons open and incarcerated more than 1,000 students,
unjustly.  In the student movement of 1998 alone, the military clique
arrested more than 400 students and sentenced more than 200 to long-term
imprisonment. Some students died and some became permanently crippled in
prisons because of mistreatment by the authorities. In the name of
development, the military clique has been wasting human resources of the
country. So long as a regime, which  regards the students as an enemy, is
in existence, there will be no development in the country.
3. Though the SPDC military clique has closed down civilian colleges and
universities, it has kept the military colleges and academies open,

regularly. It has been producing more and more military college and academy
graduates, year after year. The closure of educational institutions and the
production of more and more gun-trigger pullers are a matter of serious
concern for the future of the country. This shows that there is no equality
for the civilian students. It was like imposing a one-sided order
stipulating that the civilians should lack knowledge, while the military
students should have higher and advanced education. We have to term this as
nothing but an inhuman act. As the youths have no way of advancing their
education, the parents have been subjected to much distress.
4. The budget of the SPDC for health and education is only 5% of the
national income, whereas its military budget is more than 50%. Countries
with low educational standards have to suffer the problem of chronic
poverty. Placing no importance on education means treason to the future of
country. It is a very lowly attitude for members of the military clique to
make the others as equally uneducated as themselves. So long as such lowly
and base attitude prevails, the slogan of "establishing a modern and
developed state, being shouted by the SPDC, will remain a wishful dream.
5. For that reason, we, the NCGUB, would like to urge the parents to join
hands with the students and struggle for the rights of the students to
pursue education peacefully, to freely choose the professional lines, to
enjoy the full rights of the students and to have security of life. On our
part, we solemnly pledge to fight on until the questions of establishment
of a democratic government, democratic education and peace in the country
are fully resolved, in accordance with the demands made by the 7th July
student mass.

July 7, 1999