Jul 07 2008

Mongolian Political Situation

Published by at 5:36 pm under Mongolia,Ulaan Baatar

The day we returned from our trek to Ulgii was election day in Mongolia. The next day, when we were back in Ulaan Baatar, we saw news on the TV in the lobby. There was coverage of a violent protest going on with people throwing rocks at buildings and reporters excitedly talking into a moving camera. It had all the signs of live TV. The Mongolians working for the hotel were all watching the TV intensely. We found out from them that this protest was in Ulaan Baatar in front of the Communist party headquarters which is just a few blocks away from the hotel. The protesters were from the party that lost and they felt that the Communist party (the incumbent party) had tampered with the elections. We felt safe (and were safe) even though it was so close to us but it was interesting to learn more details in the next few days.

Mongolia is a young democracy (starting in 1990 when the USSR dismantled – no, Mongolia was not part of the USSR but it was heavily dependent on it) and all the Mongolians we spoke with were very concerned that this happened. They said this has not happened in Mongolia before. While we only saw rocks thrown on TV, it turns out that the Communist party headquarters was burned. Five people died, more than 300 were injured, and about 700 people were arrested.

The burned Communist party headquarters in UlaanBaatar

Above, the burned Communist party headquarters in Ulaan Baatar

Especially interesting were the measures the government took to try to calm the situation down. For one, we got a different story depending on what TV channel you watched. During the event, the state-run channel showed what seemed to be a smaller protest with some people simply throwing rocks at a building. Other private channels, though, showed the building being burned as well as police hitting protesters. The following day, private TV channels were off the air, a state of emergency was declared, and sales of alcohol were banned. Also, major roads to the center of the city were blocked off.

We went to the Gobi for a few days and by the time we returned, things had returned mostly to normal. Unfortunately, an innocent bystander in all this was AeroMongolia whose offices are in the same building as the Communist party. All of their paper records, manifests, passenger lists, etc. were lost in the fire and from what we learned, they were scrambling to piece their business back together as fast as they could. We found this out because the next horse trek with our guides was leaving in a couple of days and their flight west was booked on AeroMongolia so they were involved in the mad scramble to piece things together.

If you want to learn more from an official news source, here are four articles on BBC World News as events progressed:

Mongolia votes in key elections

Mongolia calls state of emergency

Fatal clashes in Mongolia capital

Streets calm in riot-hit Mongolia

And if you want to learn some background about Mongolia, the CIA World Factbook (a great place to learn basics about any country) has their Mongolia page here.

– Dave

2 responses so far

2 Responses to “Mongolian Political Situation”

  1. janarbek says:

    Hi man,

    Nice to see you. I am Mongolian from Ulgii. I miss my Ulgii. How was my Ulgii?

    Did u like it there?

  2. Danny says:

    I was there too. I am not sure exactly how far away our hotel was, not more than a few blocks. I remember driving by the People’s Revolutionary Party Headquarters before the building was completely burned, we had to roll up the windows because of the tear-gas. An interesting experience to say the least. Im just glad the government was able to take control of the situation over the next few days, and that nothing worse took place.