• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Mongolians brave snow to march for fallen government

Posted on: Monday, 16 January 2006, 02:28 CST

By Eve Johnson and Mark Chisholm

ULAN BATOR (Reuters) - Hundreds of Mongolians braved ice and snow and below-freezing temperatures on Monday to protest in the capital's vast main square against parliament's dissolution of the coalition government.

Police took up position in front of parliament as demonstrators gathered, but activists were told they would be arrested if they marched on the headquarters of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP), where on Thursday protesters broke windows and reportedly burned the party's flag.

Mineral-rich Mongolia plunged into political crisis last week when more than half the members of its cabinet, all from the MPRP, resigned from the coalition government of Prime Minister Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, of the Democratic party.

The MPRP, which ran the country as a Soviet satellite for much of the 20th century and remains its strongest political party, cited a decline in economic growth and rise in inflation as reasons for its withdrawal from the government.

Elbegdorj said the MPRP may have wanted to derail his administration's probes into "deep" official corruption.

"The old revolutionaries like Lenin were at least working for the poor. But now, they (the MPRP) are working for themselves for the purpose of becoming rich," said Otgonbataar, 45, a herdsman watching the demonstrations who said he supported the protests but did not participate.

"What we need is a government that works for the poor."

Half of Mongolia's population are nomads tending camels, ponies and sheep across the wind-swept steppe between Russia and China. More than 35 percent of the country lived below the poverty line in 2004, officials have previously said.

"DANGEROUS SITUATION"

The MPRP is seeking to lead a new government, but with half the 76 seats in the country's parliament, it is one vote short of being able to nominate a new prime minister by itself.

"The MPRP has communicated its desire to form a government of national unity and we have expressed our interest to have all political parties represented in the new government," Foreign Minister Moenkh-Orgil of the MPRP said at a briefing with heads of foreign missions in Ulan Bator.

Moenkh-Orgil said his party aimed to have a new prime minister nominated by Friday and a cabinet formed by the end of the following week.

Elbegdorj has said he will not fight parliament's decision, but warned that the move could be destabilizing.

"The recent political decision of the MPRP to topple the grand coalition government has immediately created a dangerous situation in our country," Elbegdorj told Reuters.

Power shifts are not new in the country. Four governments were formed in four years the last time the Democrats were in power, between 1996 and 2000.

But the dissolving of Elbegdorj's government represented a stark threat to democracy in Mongolia, which for years has been among the most stable states in Central Asia, said Steve Noerper, a professor at New York University.

"Mongolia may see a period of political turbulence that could lay waste to a majority -- some suggest the entirety -- of its democratic gains," Noerper, a former Asia Foundation representative in Ulan Bator, said in a statement.

President George W. Bush visited in November, praising the country as a model of democracy in the region and thanking the government for its support in the Iraq war.

Mongolia has sent about 120 soldiers to Iraq.

(Additional reporting by Paul Eckert in WASHINGTON)

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category