The World - News from June 24, 1988

Rangoon police cordoned off Burma’s holiest Buddhist shrine and surrounded student demonstrators who had set up a “strike center” on its grounds. Students gathered at the Shwedagon Pagoda, a centuries-old hilltop shrine, after the Rangoon Institute of Technology was closed in the wake of street clashes with police and troops that left nine people dead and 77 under arrest. Protests against the government reportedly spread to Mandalay, Burma’s second-largest city, and Pegu, 55 miles north of Rangoon. The dissatisfaction stems from worsening economic conditions and restrictions on individuals.