Authorities in Inner Mongolia have seized copies of a book written by a dissident as part of a campaign to vilify her, an exiled human rights group said yesterday.

Ethnic Mongolian Huuchinhuu had been denied official permission to publish Silent Rock, but managed to have it published anyway, the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Centre said. It said she stored copies of the book - which she describes as being "personal thoughts and feelings about themes and subjects unrelated to anything that could be considered 'politically sensitive'" - at the houses of relatives and colleagues in Tongliao .

"All books were confiscated without any legal process," the group said. "The authorities also located more than a dozen students of the Mongolian Middle School who had purchased the book.

"They were forced to give up their copies and told that they would face expulsion if they continued to buy and read such types of publications."

The group said Huuchinhuu believed she was being targeted because she was a member of the banned Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance.

"Her refusal to co-operate has made her the target of punitive actions," it said.

Decades of migration by Han Chinese have made Mongolians a minority in their own land, officially composing less than 20 per cent of the almost 24 million population.

Beijing, sensitive about ethnic unrest in strategic border areas like Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet , keeps a tight rein on minorities.

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