Does the ‘8888 Uprising’ still mean anything in Myanmar? Dissidents fear struggle forgotten
The nationwide strikes on August 8, 1988 were part of broader anti-junta demonstrations that catapulted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi into the spotlight
Ko Shell had his teeth knocked out during torture sessions and spent 14 years in six jails, but as the 30th anniversary looms of the famed Myanmar pro-democracy uprising that led to his incarceration, he says those sacrifices are being forgotten.
Sitting in a tea shop in downtown Yangon, he worries history is not being taught to the younger generation, a frustration mirroring wider disappointment with the government among many jailed for opposing the junta which ruled for four decades.
“All the true stories were not shared with the public,” the 49-year-old said.
Military regimes in Myanmar imprisoned nearly 10,000 people since the army first seized power in 1962, sending the country into decades of isolation.
Most were jailed in the years after nationwide strikes on August 8, 1988, part of broader anti-junta demonstrations that catapulted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi into the spotlight.
The daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero, Suu Kyi was swept up in the revolt soon after returning from a cosy life in England to care for her sick mother.