site reportedly angered student activists. As such, they had organised themselves to march to the grounds. Students from the Rangoon Institute of Technology (RIT), RASU, the Rangoon Medical College, and the Institute of Education took part in the march, which was supported by onlookers and monks. 50,000 people were present at the Kyaikkasan grounds for the final funeral rites. At 3 p.m., the time of the planned funeral procession, a group of monks handed U Thant's body to the students, who "announced through loudspeakers that they wished to ensure a fitting interment for Thant and criticized the Government's failure to do so". They drove the coffin to the RASU campus and placed it on a makeshift platform in its Convocation Hall. There, the students demanded that the government "find an appropriate burial site and construct a mausoleum befitting such a distinguished figure". Tyn Myint-U, U Thant's son-in-law, reports that thousands of students were present, and Selth notes that the Hall became a platform for left-wing students to make fiery political speeches against Ne Win and the government. Negotiations On 6 December, a meeting was held with U Thant's family, a group of student activists from the RASU, and government officials. Accounts of this negotiation differ. Mya Maung writes: In contrast, Tyn Myint-U states that he had persuaded the student leaders that a state funeral was no necessary as U Thant had already retired from the UN, and that the students had agreed because Tyn was a family member. Second coffin snatch The students at the meeting with the family and the government were from what Tyn dubs the "Convocation Hall Group", composed of RASU students. There was, however, another "rival" group of students from the RIT, the "Mandalay Hostel Group", which were against returning the body to the family. These RIT students had begun construction of a mausoleum at the site of the old Students Union building, which had great political and historical significance for the student activists. On 8 December, the coffin was brought to this mausoleum "as a gesture toward the students who had wished him interred there". Draped by the UN flag, it was placed on a dais and surrounded by golden umbrellas, a multicoloured Buddhist flag, the flag of the banned Students Union, and a UN flag. Unexpectedly for the family, however: The family fled in fear of a riot. The students entombed the body in