Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information CenterSouthern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center
HomeAbout UsCampaignsSouthern Mongolian WatchChineseJapaneseNewsLInksContact Us
<Back>

 

  Mongolian Activist in Danger
   
http://action.amnesty.org.au
June 5, 2008
By KimB
 

Mongolian human rights activist Jaranbayar Soyolt hasn't been seen or heard from for almost five months – we are deeply worried that he's at risk of being tortured or ill-treated.

Jaranbayar Soyolt, who is a founding member of several exiled dissident groups in Mongolia, has been detained by Chinese authorities for alleged involvement in "overseas activities harmful to China's security". He was last seen by two business colleagues at Beijing Capital International on 6 January this year.

The 48-year-old, who was at the customs counter, handcuffed and surrounded by five policemen, told his colleagues he had been arrested. He asked them to contact his family and Beijing's Mongolian Embassy.

Passport problems

Five days later, under pressure from authorities, he phoned a colleague and said he was being held because of problems with his passport. He hasn't been heard from since.

During that phone call he asked that foreign media weren't told about this arrest in order not to "make things worse" – and because of that threat his family has not publicised his case until now.

Jaranbayar Soyolt was originally a Chinese citizen from the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, but he went into exile in Mongolia in the early 1990s. He was granted asylum and Mongolian citizenship in 1997.

Cultural genocide

He has been a human rights advocate for decades. In the early 1980s he was one of the leaders of the Mongolian Student Movement, a mass protest by ethnic Mongolian students and academics against the Chinese Central Government's plan to migrate 600,000 ethnic Han-Chinese into Inner Mongolia without consulting local communities.

Since living in Mongolia he has continued his human rights activities – and in 1993, he gave a speech at the World Mongolian Alliance First Congress publicly criticising China's ethnic policy as one of "ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide".

Labelled a separatist

The Chinese authorities have labelled Jaranbayar Soyolt a Mongolian separatist and have claimed that he is plotting to overthrow China's ruling communist party.

The Chinese authorities, according to their latest statement, have placed him under 'house arrest'. After originally denying any knowledge, officials confirmed on 31 January that he had entered China through the airport on 6 January.

Jaranbayar Soyolt suffers from ill-health and because of this, and the constant reports coming through of the torture and ill-treatment of political dissidents, we are extremely concerned about his well-being and safety.

 

 

<Back>

 
From Yeke-juu League to Ordos Municipality: settler colonialism and alter/native urbanization in Inner Mongolia

Close to Eden (Urga): France, Soviet Union, directed by Nikita Mikhilkov

Beyond Great WallsBeyond Great Walls: Environment, Identity, and Development on the Chinese Grasslands of Inner Mongolia

The Mongols at China's EdgeThe Mongols at China's Edge: History and the Politics of National Unity

China's Pastoral RegionChina's Pastoral Region: Sheep and Wool, Minority Nationalities, Rangeland Degradation and Sustainable Development

Changing Inner MongoliaChanging Inner Mongolia: Pastoral Mongolian Society and the Chinese State (Oxford Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology)

Grasslands and Grassland Science in Northern ChinaGrasslands and Grassland Science in Northern China: A Report of the Committee on Scholarly Communication With the People's Republic of China

The Ordos Plateau of ChinaThe Ordos Plateau of China: An Endangered Environment (Unu Studies on Critical Environmental Regions)
 ©2002 SMHRIC. All rights reserved. Home | About Us | Campaigns | Southern Mongolian Watch | News | Links | Contact Us