The U Thant funeral crisis or U Thant crisis () was a series of protests and riots in the then-Burmese capital of Rangoon triggered by the death of U Thant, the third Secretary-General of the United Nations on 25 November 1974. In response to the Burmese military government's refusal to give him a state funeral, student activists from the Rangoon Arts and Sciences University (RASU) took his body away from the official funeral procession and marched it to the university campus where they held their own ceremony for him. The students, Thant's family, and the government came to an agreement to bury the body in a new mausoleum next to the Shwedagon Pagoda, but before this could happen, another group of student activists took the body to a mausoleum they had constructed at the site of the demolished RASU Students Union building. On 11 December, the government stormed the university grounds, seized the body, and entombed it at the Kandawmin Garden Mausolea. Citywide riots followed this crackdown, and the government declared martial law. Peace returned to the city by 15 December after the army cracked down on the rioters and protesters. According to official sources, thousands of protesters were arrested and at least eighteen died, but unofficial figures are much higher. Background About U Thant Before holding the role of UN Secretary-General from 1961 to 1971, Thant was a civil servant under the administration of U Nu, the first prime minister of Burma. As the Secretary of Projects for the Prime Minister's office, Thant accompanied Nu on several official trips overseas. Thant also represented Burma at the 1952 UN General Assembly and the 1955 Bandung Conference in Indonesia. In 1957, he became Burma's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. When Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld was killed in a plane crash in 1961, Thant was appointed acting Secretary-General for the remainder of Hammarskjöld's term. His term was extended in 1962 to five years from the day he took office, and he stood unopposed for a second term in 1966. In December 1971, Thant stepped down after being hospitalised for a bleeding ulcer. Remaining in New York, he became a Senior Fellow at the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs and was awarded the UN Peace Medal in 1972. On 25 November 1974, he died of complications from cancer. Political and economic context Thant's death occurred only two years after a transition of