30 years after Myanmar uprising, dissidents fear struggle forgotten
YANGON – 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 shortly after returning from a cozy life in England to care for her sick mother. But despite then spending a combined 15 years under house arrest by the paranoid regime, Suu Kyi has emphasised reconciling with the generals after winning landmark elections in 2015. While a third of MPs in her party have served time for activism, prominent members of the 1988 protests were passed over when candidates for...
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