I'm just gonna post snippets of what's happening in general, so it'll be a bit disorganized.
Independent media services, TV and FM radio stations, have all been shut down. Olloo.mn and gogo.mn services have been suspended, I believe, as I cannot access them. The government has deployed police patrols and state troops to secure all strategic assets as a part of the President's decree, including power, water, heating distribution centres, pumps, waste disposal centres, drinking water sources, gas stations, oil storages and main food factories.
The emergency Parliamentary session scheduled at 10am was postponed till later this afternoon, as the National Security Council convened in the morning.
Further to the news about civilians getting shot outside Hospital 1, Amarbold, head of the Central Police Bureau, in a brief interview printed on news.mn, clarifies that the police did not fire live rounds at civilians, and further goes on to state that there are civilians who own firearms and it is not possible to ascertain the source of the fire exchange at this point.
The leaders of Civic Movement and Mongolian Republican Party, O.Manlai, J.Batzandan & B.Jargalsaikhan are hurriedly distancing themselves from any involvement with the riots.
B.Jargalsaikhan of the MRP stated that he had closed off the demonstrations officially and left the grounds at 4pm in the afternoon on Tuesday, an hour or so before the demonstrations turned violent.
A number of cultural centres have been ransacked during the chaos, including the Morin Khuur Ensemble building, Philharmonic Orchestra, Modern Art Gallery and Central Cultural Palace. While the buildings sustained minimal damage, the offices were looted and most of the instruments of the Morin Khuur Ensemble and Philharmonic Orchestra were stolen or destroyed. The National Chamber of Commerce and Industry has set up a donation fund for the public to contribute in the rebuilding process of these cultural centres. Further details are available on news.mn.
The number of dead is now confirmed at 4 though there could be more. There are many injured, some in intensive care in the hospitals.
Lastly, this is probably not the best time to wander about the city if you've had a few drinks. Sale and distribution of alcohol are prohibited during the state of emergency, and the police are quick to arrest inebriated civilians wandering about city centre.
Update: The National Security Council meeting has been postponed till tomorrow, as a Cabinet meeting as well as a Parliamentary session were scheduled for today. Parliamentary session postponed till 5pm today, as many members had not yet returned to the capital from the rural regions after their campaigns.
718 civilians have been detained by the police for questioning. News.mn reports of police using violence on detainees during the interrogation process at a Denjiin Myangat temp detention centre.
Foreign embassies in central Ulaanbaatar have been provided with added security, among them the embassies of Turkey, China, Japan, Russia, Bulgaria and S.Korea.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Mongolia Riots: Aftermath 2
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Thanks for continuing to provide English language coverage of these unfortunate events.
i think MPRParty guilty.
MPRP started the brainwashing by banning freelance TV and papers. The only TV is defending MPRP and I can't help, but feel that the socialist times have returned. Where is the democracy peole fought for?
Hey, where are the previous posts?
democracy = burning down headquarters of rival party?
anon, for previous posts, go to the main page or go here: http://asiangypsy.blogspot.com/search/label/Riots for a posts on the riots.
john: thanks for the comment. hopefully the posts help to keep people updated on what really is happening in mongolia.
yan, dem and anon: i have been hearing conspiracy theories from various viral messages and people i have called in UB. some say the MPRP is responsible for the attacks to win public sympathy. Far-fetched and some wild theories. Strange turn of events.
Why it doesn't surprise me? That could have been the intenet of MPRP from the start.
Yan-the burning is not the democracy, it was the fight to return the democracy. When people's choices are nor being respected and when the leading party dictates the rules... that is not the democracy. People were forced to act as they did. It did get out of control, I agree. It is unfortunate, but it was inevitable, I think.
Bilguun, I like your updates. No sides taken, just the plain facts. Keep it up and good luck!!!
Just strange that the AH only found out about the election rigging once they discovered the MAXH would get more seats.
And the people were forced to act just in the way the MAXH intended all along? Or what exactly is the supposed narrative of that conspiracy?
There are more than a few theories being thrown about. Most not worth a second thought, as they are quite implausible.
Thank you so much for the thorough and prompt updates. Well, our concerts in UB for tonight and tomorrow night are canceled as expected.
Some reports have mentioned that the system for vote count this time is different from previous elections. And that might be one of the reasons causing the dispute. Could you elaborate on that? Really appreciated.
Previously, Mongolia had a majority system, i.e. from each election district, the candidate with most votes would go to parliament. This election, the election districts have been enlarged (previously: 2-4(?) districts per aimag or duureg*, this time one district per aimag or duureg), and accordingly people get 2-4(?) votes, and the 2-4(?) candidates with most votes would go to parliament.
I am not sure if electors were allowed to give more than one vote for one candidate or not.
hope this helps.
*aimag: province, duureg: district in UB
i do not think burning rival party's building is democracy. i surely believe that demonstrating against a party that has rigged democratic election is a fair. it is MPRP who has to take the blame for cheating the mongolian folk.
Come on people.
Are you happy with Elbegdorj as your Prime Minister by giving DP the majority???
At this point of time, he is asking: How can the Police open fire at its own citizens?
Does this even make sense to you? As a party leader, as one of Mongolians most looked upon leaders, as a likely Prime Minister (if DP wins majority in Parliament)..... i have no words to say.
Everybody saw how the protestors were uncontrollable. Many policemen are hurt. They had no choice. And he is asking the least important question.
Voting for MPRP does not mean voting for Communist, Socialist ideals. And voting for DP does not mean voting for Democracy.
Mongolia is democratic country ( and still working towards greater level of democracy) with multi party system.
I believe all parties have democratic ideals now. It is just a matter of quality of the leaders. I hate the fact that in the past 18 years, corrupt officials have neglected the development of Mongolia and its people. I am frustrated too. Simple things like there is no proper pavement to walk on, garbage problems, traffic condition. The corrupt officials did not only come from MPRP. DP has their fair share of corrupt officials.
But look at today, which party has members who have the ability to be quality leaders. People are angry, they are asking where is democracy. Simply because of past records. Let's move on, let's choose someone who will be a BETTER leader today.
I truly cannot comprehend the bias and hate towards the Rev. party. The Dem. and Rev. parties are equally responsible for the current downtrodden state of Mongolia. Both parties had their fair share of chances to rule and govern, yet both haven't accomplished much in the past years. It's time to look past party labels and elect the most qualified leaders.
We surely do not want democracy with mob mentality in Mongolia.
to yan:
Thanks a lot. Interestingly, Taiwan's voting system for legislation members also changed in the election held last year. And also created surprising results and made a lot people very upset. The most interesting thing is that Mongolia and Taiwan did exactly the opposite way. Our new system is your old one, and vice versa. Judging from our experience, changing in voting system does create "surprising" outcome.
expat: I think the bias against and hatred towards the MPRP may be explained by a few factors. One, in people's minds, the MPRP still has remnants of the old communist system, or is at least associated with it. Many of the MPRP officials were educated and had served as junior officials under the communist regime. Of course, this isn't exclusive to the MPRP members, I'm sure many others were MPRP members before the collapse of communism. Two, many people are still blaming the MPRP for the collapse of the coalition government in 2006. Granted, they only took advantage of a situation created by internal conflicts in the Democratic Party, but the public puts the blame on the MPRP as they came out winners as a result of this conflict. All things said and done, MPRP has been a far more strategically thinking party, able to take advantage of the opposition weaknesses.
It is true that the DP has also its own portion of corruption, but MPRP is definitely more corrupted. Also the current president Enkhbayar, who is the most corruption suspected person in Mongolia is behind the MPRP. I personally believe Bayar represents a better part of the MPRP and not really a good person for corrupted MRPP members with high level positions. However, they had no choice to choose Bayar to lift the reputation of the party, which was very low due to the dismissal coalition government and the failure of Enkhbold's government. Bayar's policy has been surprisingly innovative to be proposed by the conservative MPRP party. He initially denied the possibility of giving a million dollar to every citizen. Then he suddenly changes his mind most likely because the corrupted MPRP part knew that they wouldn't win the election without promising more money than DP and pressed Bayar to add such a promise. So I am afraid they will get the edge over Bayar and break economic and social progresses of the country in favor of their own benefits. The rural population, who is usually far from information and media and brainwashed by the local government, who is usually from MPRP, bought the promise and voted for them.
We have also aware of the fact that the numbers of mandates are not proportional to the corresponding numbers of the voters. One vote in rural area has twice or thrice of power than a vote in UB. If UB with its over 1 million population has 40% of mandates it could have been a somewhat different result.