MONGOLIA: Thousands gather in Ulan Bator for a three-day peaceful protest against corruption and alleged mineral wealth looting

The gathering marked three days of a rare and peaceful civil protest in Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia. Thousands of people from all over the country crowded Ulan Bator's main square on Monday (November 6), urging the government and the parliament to fight corruption, and to protect Mongolian mineral wealth from both domestic and foreign corruption. Mining is the leading sector in Mongolia and represents about 20 percent of the countries Gross Domestic Product (GDP) -- 70 percent of all exports. Many Mongolians think that people should get a fairer share of value of the country's mineral resources and want more transparency in the process of attributing exploitation licenses. The "Mongolian National Front", a federation of seven civil movements ranging from the "Mongolian Free Elders Union" to "Total Mongol" had been preparing this gathering for months and launched the self proclaimed first "Congress of the Mongolian people", or "All People's Congress" during the event. Some 13,000 representatives registered themselves to the congress. One of the founding leaders and head of the "Just Society" civil movement, J. Batzandan told Reuters that corruption was at the heart of Mongolian society's feelings of resentment. "A strong issue that weakens our society is corruption. The Mongolian government became irresponsible. The government is a nursing place for corrupt people. To change this we gathered at this conference," Batzandan said. Mongolia was ranked 99th out of 163 countries in Transparency International's October report. The anti-corruption watchdog gave the country a poor mark of 2.8 on 10 (with 0 meaning high corruption). Corruption, protesters said, leads to poverty for Mongolian citizen. "Here you can hear what people want. People live in hardships and as a result you have this thing happening," a young demonstrator said. The delegates of the "All People Congress" plan to become a permanent counterweight to the political powers. To this end, they organised a referendum during the three-day protest. Voting was held on Monday (November 6) and Tuesday (November 7) under a big cloth tent erected on the square, with over 10,000 people participating to the vote, according to the organisers. The latest mineral resources laws were rejected by 98 percent, 91 percent called on the president and the parliament to resign immediately, and 93 percent voted for the All People Congress to become a permanent structure, with elected representatives, especially for groups living in far remote regions. "The All People's Congress is right. They are part of the Mongolian people. There are mixed feelings about them. What is special here is that anybody can talk freely. This is a criteria of democracy, right? I believe that this movement will succeed someday. Yet they make mistakes. You know this is new phenomenon", a 55 years old farmer said. Delegates of the "All People's Congress" are now planning to tour the country from the beginning of next week. The Mongolian Parliament last May passed a controversial law on mineral resources which would enable the government to take up to 70 percent of the profits on mineral resources like gold and copper, if these raw materials would rise above a certain price level. The law was inspired by popular protests on the influence of foreign mining companies like Ivanhoe Mines and the possible drain of mineral resources from Mongolia, without much benefit for the country itself.

ITN Source | November 9, 2006

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