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Ulaanbaatar (AFP) – A distinguished anti-China activist has been arrested in Mongolia, a part of what campaigners have stated is a wider effort to “clear up” Beijing’s critics within the nation.
Landlocked Mongolia depends on mineral exports to its big neighbours, Russia and China, however there have additionally been protests within the capital Ulaanbaatar over Beijing’s language coverage in Interior Mongolia.
Critics of the coverage within the Chinese language border area — house to an estimated 4.5 million ethnic Mongolians — say it mirrors strikes in different areas resembling Xinjiang and Tibet to assimilate native minorities into the dominant Han tradition and eradicate minority languages.
Munkhbayar Chuluundorj was arrested Friday in Ulaanbaatar on suspicion of “receiving directions and funds from a international intelligence group”, the nation’s spy company stated.
The Common Intelligence Company (GIA) stated he had “engaged in unlawful cooperation actions” however gave no extra particulars.
Campaigners stated they suspected Munkhbayar’s feedback on China had introduced him underneath official scrutiny.
In Fb posts, he not too long ago known as for the Mongolian prime minister to resign over his shut relationship with Beijing, saying “our nation’s independence shall be misplaced and all residents of Mongolia will grow to be slaves of China”.
Footage of the arrest revealed by Mongolian outlet Eguur Information confirmed a person being led away by armed police down a shop-lined highway.
Visits from kin are being denied and a closed-door trial is being held, the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Info Centre, an abroad NGO that advocates for ethnic Mongols, quoted his brother Munkh-erdene as saying.
The NGO stated Munkhbayar is “one of the vital vocal critics of the Mongolian authorities’s cosy relationship with China”.
Munkhbayar has “defended Interior Mongolian human rights, tradition, historical past and land rights”, based on Baljinima Bai, a language rights advocate initially from Interior Mongolia.
“Mongolia has began to ‘clear up’ these individuals… who oppose China,” he instructed AFP.
Bai stated he had additionally been summoned for questioning by the GIA in relation to Munkhbayar’s case.
Interior Mongolian activists in Mongolia say they’ve confronted threats and intimidation from authorities after a widespread protest motion towards Chinese language-language curriculum reforms throughout the border was met with a harsh police crackdown.
Activists additionally say China has pressured Mongolia to deport Interior Mongolian political refugees again to the nation.
© 2022 AFP
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