the mausoleum they had built, and locked and barricaded the entrances to the campus. Students and monks guarded the entrances and prevented anyone with weapons or cameras from entering. For the next five days, students made passionate speeches at the steps of the Convocation Hall. They denounced Ne Win and the way he treated U Thant's remains, and spoke about democracy, peace, and freedom. The site had become a veritable "revolutionary center". As Seekins describes: The mood on the ground was a mix of solidarity and exhilaration as the tone of the speeches became increasingly defiant of the government. As state intervention loomed, however, students armed with sticks formed "suicide squads" to guard the campus entrances, and "moving speeches were made on the theme of liberty or death which left the people gathered on the campus in tears". On the night of 10 December, as many as 2,000 people guarded the mausoleum. That night, the state-owned Burma Broadcasting Service denounced the students for reneging on their agreement and declared that the students had gone against the wishes of U Thant's family. Furthermore, it charged that the students had illegally used the government's construction materials and occupied the university site (on which to build their mausoleum) without authorisation. There was a two-day lull during which state-owned newspapers and radio kept up a constant barrage of denunciations against the students. Crackdown and riots Around 2 a.m. on 11 December, a large number of soldiers and policemen broke the gates down with heavy machinery and stormed the campus. Tear gas and baton charges dispersed the students, and despite some resistance, the security forces gained control of the campus by 3 a.m. By 4 a.m., the officers broke open the mausoleum and retrieved the casket. Early the next morning, the casket was buried at the Kandawmin Garden Mausolea below the Shwedagon Pagoda. Reported arrest and casualty figures differ greatly. Selth states that about 2,900 people were arrested but does not mention any fatalities. Maung cites students' accounts that the army killed so many students that "the blood of the dead students flowed in a river on campus and when it congealed, it was taken in bags and pockets by the people". Robert Taylor, in contrast, claims that "no-one was killed and few injured". The crackdown sparked mass riots in Rangoon. Angered by the authorities' treatment of the students, angry crowds attacked police stations, set