Protests Continue over Land Grabs in China’s Inner Mongolia

More than 40 ethnic Mongolians marched to government offices in Inner Mongolia on Wednesday. They were demanding the release of protesters who had been detained.

Hundreds had protested in Inner Mongolia on Tuesday. They said a Chinese forestry company had taken their land, and they wanted local officials to help them get it back.

[Xi Haiming, Inner Mongolian League for the Defense of Human Rights]:

"The Mongolian grasslands were owned by Mongolians, but the CCP conducted a land reform. They made the land state-owned by law, and just gave herders the right to use it. But now even the basic right to use it is not guaranteed anymore."

More than 80 police officers broke up the protests. They detained 22 people. Protestors say that the policemen sprayed some unknown chemical into the mouths of those detained, causing vomiting and dizziness.

The original protest erupted when locals tried to physically stop an excavator from working on the disputed land. Five people were seriously injured, according to the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center.

Locals had been appealing to authorities for months, according to the center. They said leaders of the protest have been repeatedly threatened.

[Xi Haiming, Inner Mongolian League for the Defense of Human Rights]:
Now the Communist Party’s rule has reached a critical stage, so it cannot compromise.
It will be stricter in Inner Mongolia, Tibet and other border areas. They suppress local people's resistance, and also give a warning to others, to threaten and frighten people."

A local Chinese Communist Party official told Radio Free Asia that they were attempting to negotiate with the protesters. But protesters say authorities only offered to release those detained if they signed statements promising to stop protesting. The protestors refused.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog