July 2, 2008

Mongolians Demand Liberty, Police Murder Five

Well, are we supposed to believe this another CIA plot? Aren't Mongolians, like Tibetans and the Uyghurs simply demanding the same civil liberties we have here and shouldn't we be supporting them? Messers Parenti and Michel Chossudovsky would disagree, along with numerous China-is-ONE nuts who troll the internets. Shame on China for not listening to the people!

5 Killed in Riots After Mongolia Vote
By JIM YARDLEY
July 3, 2008
BEIJING — The president of Mongolia, Nambariin Enkhbayar, declared a national state of emergency on Tuesday after hundreds of people angered by election results rioted in the capital, Ulan Bator, leaving five people dead. Troops were patrolling the capital to enforce martial law, Mongolian state media reported.
Mongolia’s national news agency, Montsame, said 710 people were detained after groups of protesters, alleging fraud in last weekend’s national elections, clashed with the police. [my bold] Preliminary results of the elections gave a parliamentary majority to the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party, the successor to the country’s Communist Party, which dominated the nation when it was a puppet of the Soviet Union. The opposition Democratic Party rejected the election results but disavowed the violence, Reuters reported.
Both political parties held closed meetings on Tuesday, and the Parliament was planning to hold a special session to address the crisis, the national news agency reported. “At this moment, the situation in the capital city is relatively normal,” the Ulan Bator police chief, Amarbold, said on state television, according to Reuters. “It is very peaceful compared to yesterday, but the troops need to stay on the street.”
[...] The UB Post, an English language newspaper in Ulan Bator, reported that 74 percent of the country’s 1.6 million eligible voters cast ballots in Sunday’s parliamentary races. [my bold] [Doesn't the fact that 74% of eligible voters turned out indicate a desire for change?] It also reported that the People’s Revolutionary Party had won at least half of the 76 legislative seats even as votes were still being counted. “Based on information we got through our primary units, we have won all mandates in nine provinces,” Yo Otgonbayar, secretary general of the party, told a news conference in Ulan Bator.
A 16-member team of international election observers confirmed the results of the race. Leaders of the Democratic Party disagreed with the preliminary results but also wanted to meet with the People’s Revolutionary Party to defuse the crisis.
“From the Sea of Japan to the eastern border of Europe, we are the only functioning democracy, and we have a duty to save it,” the Democratic Party leader, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, told Reuters. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/world/asia/03mongolia.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
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