Revolutionary times

On Tuesday evening, the 1st of June, a large scale protest broke out at the headquarters of the leading party in Mongolia, the MAXN (the ex-Communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party). Masses of people congregated at the square outside the headquarters, and a select few began attacking and looting the building. Clashes between the protestors and the police occurred throughout the night, and some protesters attacked a local police station. By the end of the evening the whole building was in flames, and 5 people had died. It was the first time in living memory that Mongolians had risen up in a violent protest.

Background information - It's difficult to really know what the reasons are for this protest, as different people give me different viewpoints. However, here's a brief summary. Those who are more sympathetic to the demonstrations suggest they were protesting as a reaction to the election results. The leading party, MAXN, increased their share of the vote winning over 60% of the seats. Some people think that this result was inaccurate, and so went to MAXN to protest. The protesters (again from what I hear) submitted a petition demanding for the election results to be investigated. Nobody from MAXN came out to talk to the protesters, so the protesters became rowdy. The police then stepped in and the protest escalated. However, those that support MAXN say that the majority of the protesters were just drunkards, and those that wanted to cause damage. There was no real political component to the demonstrations.

If you want to find out more, please feel free to check out these news stories from the BBC:
(breaking news from the BBC) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7484632.stm
(BBC photos) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7484682.stm
(overview of situation) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7485473.stm
(stabilisation of situation) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7486794.stm

The aftermath of the protest - at 11:30pm on Tuesday evening, President Enkhbayar called a state of emergency for four days. The result is that the streets are now full of heavily armed soldiers, patrolling around sensitive areas. They are quite intimidating, I've never seen large groups of people carry guns around. The four corners of the main square also have tanks on them... All residents of Ulaanbaatar have to follow a strict curfew, getting home by 10pm and only being able to leave the house at 8am. This hasn't been too bad, as I now feel legitimately able to go to bed early and get a good night's sleep! What is more disconcerting is that all the non-state media has been shut down. That means there is only one TV station broadcasting and only one radio station transmitting. This basically allows the state to control the flow of information, and some Mongolians are worried that the government is trying to cover their eyes.

The population is understandably nervous at the moment. The streets are quieter, as fewer people are out and about, and those that are in the city are generally talking less. Children are scared of what might happen next, and the sporadic power cuts spark more nervousness. Over 700 people have been arrested in connection with the protest. It's interesting to see how a government and a population reacts to this situation. The coming weeks will be equally interesting. From what I can make out, the majority of people view the violent nature of the protest as very bad. They are shocked that Mongolian people could do this (for example, the democratic revolution of 1992 was peaceful).

Many people, rightly or wrongly, are blaming the Democratic Party for the troubles, and I think if another election was called more people would vote for MAXN. This in turn has led some Democratic Party supporters to create conspiracy theories that MAXN deliberately allow the protest to spread, and are now exploiting the negative images to their advantage. I've come to realise that it's incredibly difficult as a foreigner to really work out what's going on. The language barrier is one thing, but I also have no real knowledge of the historical background, or the things that are going on behind the scenes.

Anyway, despite all of this I'm doing ok, so don't worry about me. I've just got to keep my head down... Lots of love from a tense Ulaanbaatar,

Robert