Facts: Mongolia
With an area of just over 1.5 million square kilometers, Mongolia is more than three times the size of Sweden – while the population is a third, only about 3.3 million people.
Of these, approximately half now live in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. There they cannot fit in existing housing, which means that a majority of the capital’s population lives in the gerer (yurts or nomadic tents) that they brought with them from the countryside.
In 1960, two-thirds of Mongolia’s population lived in the countryside. Now the situation is reversed, with less than a third outside the cities.
Mongolia has a very rich and dramatic history, culminating in the transcontinental rampages of the cruel rulers Genghis and Kublai Khan in the 13th century. Their kingdom still holds the record as the largest in world history. Around the year 1280, it stretched from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and from Siberia in the north to present-day Vietnam in the south.
The Mongols are proud of their ancestors, but history also gives them problems – many other Asians still have prejudices about Mongols being aggressive and conflict-prone.
Mongolia is rich in minerals. Gold, copper and coal (mainly lignite) are mined in large quantities, and tin, tungsten and uranium to a lesser extent. There are also deposits of, among other things, fluorspar, molybdenum, silver, nickel, lead, zinc and iron.
Air pollution from coal burning is an acute problem in Mongolia. Every winter, the country’s children’s hospitals are filled to capacity.
Armed with wolf fur jackets, horsehide shoes and sheepskin tunics, Mongolia’s protesters have braved the bitter cold for over a week.
“I will stay here until the thieves are punished,” said a woman who slept in the square for several days to the AFP news agency.
For fear of the police, she does not want to give her name – especially since protesters were beaten by the police last week, in connection with several people trying to storm the country’s presidential residence.
Security personnel block the entrance to the palace in Ulaanbaatar after protesters tried to storm the building.
In temperatures down to minus 30 degrees, thousands of furious capital residents have since December 5 occupied Genghis Khan Square in central Ulaanbaatar. Dressed in layers upon layers, they sleep on thermoplastic mattresses, determined not to throw in the towel until a series of corrupt politicians in what has come to be known as the “coal mafia” are brought to justice.
Headache in neighboring countries
The demonstrators are protesting that several officials and company leaders over the course of six years have gotten their hands on upwards of 120 million dollars, equivalent to over one billion Swedish kronor, by making dubious coal deals with China. The sum corresponds to almost 1 percent of the landlocked country’s total GDP.
Mongolia is rich in minerals, not least gold, copper and coal. Increased demand from China and domestic subsidies for coal briquettes have led to a mining boom in Mongolia, and the coal also warms the country’s population, which in winter lives in one of the coldest places on earth.
The protests are believed to be an unmanageable headache for both Beijing and Moscow, reports say Hong Kong-based Asia Times. Both countries – which border Mongolia on each side – are notoriously hostile to protest movements in their neighboring areas and afraid of so-called “color revolutions”, a term often used to describe revolutionary movements in the former Soviet Union, among others.
Got a sleeping bag
Both Beijing and Moscow regularly accuse the United States and other Western countries of being behind the pro-democracy protests that flare up in the region.
Protesters in Ulaanbaatar brave the December cold.
In addition to the fear that the protests will spill over the border, both Russia and China have strong economic interests in Mongolia, writes The Diplomat.
But the protesters are not afraid of powerful interests. 22-year-old Ariunzaya Tsengelsaikhan says the support from the public is huge. Residents of the capital bring warm food and drink and donate warm clothes to the protesters. A few days ago, a strange man came by with a sleeping bag and a sleeping pad for her.
— It’s warm if you sleep between two people and stay close. We change positions every two hours to make sure everyone stays warm, she told AFP.
Mongolian police behind riot shields in central Ulaanbaatar on December 5. Treated ‘like dogs’
The protesters have asked to set up traditional Mongolian yurts to keep warm, but have been denied permission.
“The government treats us like dogs,” says one protester.
Several people, including a former manager of one of the country’s largest coal mining companies, have been arrested on charges of money laundering and embezzlement in connection with the coal operations. But that hasn’t been enough to quell public anger.
“We want to eat the big fish,” says protester Bayaraa Damiran and continues:
— They arrested seven or eight officials with low positions. We want to know who the big fish at the top are.