| Visitors Now: | |
| Total Visits: | |
| Total Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
China Tightens Grip On Inner Mongolia Before Planned Mass Protests
Security forces sealed off parts of the capital of China's vast northern region of Inner Mongolia on Sunday to prevent residents from staging a planned mass protest after the hit-and-run death of a herder sparked six days of protests by ethnic Mongolians.
Hundreds of paramilitary policemen and police in riot gear, armed with shields, batons and helmets, patrolled Hohhot's Xinhua Square, next to the Inner Mongolia radio and television station, after calls spread online for a protest on Monday.
Police also surrounded Ruyi Square, in front of the local government building, but elsewhere in the city appeared bustling as normal.
Chinese authorities sealed off parts of the northern region of Inner Mongolia, a resource-rich region strategically located on the borders ofRussia and Mongolia, on Friday in what residents described as martial law.
In a rare sign of defiance, hundreds of China's Mongolians, who make up less than 20 percent of the roughly 24 million population of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, have taken to the streets in other parts of the province despite tighter security.
They were angered by the death this month of a Mongolian herder, Mergen, after being struck by a coal truck. The government announced the arrest of two Han Chinese for homicide, but that failed to stem public anger.
But the resentment goes much deeper. Inner Mongolia, which covers more than a tenth of China's land mass, is supposed to offer a high degree of self-rule, but Mongolians say the Han Chinese majority run the show and have been the main beneficiaries of economic development.
China's Mongolians rarely take to the streets, unlike Tibetans or Xinjiang's Uighurs, making the latest protests highly unusual.
(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/29/us-china-protest-idUSTRE74S15C20110529 )
Flag of Inner Mongolian People's Party
The US-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Centre, which has many contacts in the region, said a "regionwide demonstration" was planned for Monday and urged people globally to protest in front of Chinese embassies.
In the last reported incident, more than 300 riot police clashed on Friday with hundreds of herders and students in Shuluun Huh banner, or Zhenglanqi in Chinese, the Mongol rights group said.
It urged people around the world to protest on Monday at midday "to demand the government of China respect the human rights, life and dignity of the Mongols in China and to resolve the case of Mergen in a just and fair manner."
Meanwhile, residents in many areas of Inner Mongolia, including Hohhot, the regional capital, said there was tight security on Sunday.
"There are still many police patrolling near the government building, one every several metres," one local in Xiwuqi, where protests have taken place, told AFP, adding that no further demonstrations had happened at the weekend.
An employee at a hotel near Xinhua Square in Hohhot said all roads around his building had been blocked since Sunday morning.
"This is because police want to prevent students from gathering at the square and making trouble," he said.
Chinese authorities — already jittery about anonymous online calls for nationwide protests emulating unrest in the Arab world — also appeared to have clamped down on Internet communications in parts of Inner Mongolia on Sunday.
An employee at a store belonging to telecommunications operator China Unicom said it was not possible to go online in Hohhot using mobile phones, although it was unclear if this was directly linked to the unrest.
A resident in Xianghuangqi, a city to the northeast of Hohhot, said she had received a government notice calling on people not to post messages online and not to "sensationalise" anything.
The Mongol rights group said some bloggers and online users in Tongliao city, where a university has been sealed off, had been summoned by police. In Hohhot, it added, some Internet chat rooms had been shut down.
Read more about the unrest in Inner Mongolia at the sources of this article's information in the above links.
