Inner Mongolians in Mongolia demonstrated before the Chinese
Embassy on Sunday to protest against the Chinese Government’s actions following
the death earlier this month of an ethnic Mongolian herder, who was killed when
he was struck by a coal truck. The government has announced the arrest of two
Han Chinese for homicide, though this has failed to stem public anger.
Mongolian civil movements such as Khukh Mongol, Dayar Mongol and Tsagaan Khas
joined the demonstration.

Inner Mongolia, which covers
more than a tenth of China”s land mass and borders Mongolia proper, is supposed
to offer a high degree of self-rule. In practice, though, Inner Mongolians say
the Han Chinese majority run the show and have been the main beneficiaries of
economic development.

Inner Mongolia is China”s
largest producer of coal, a commodity that feeds well over half the country”s
power plants and on which China depends for its breakneck economic growth.
“The rapid development of resource extraction has resulted in a terrible
blow to the interests of the Mongolians,” Tumen-ulzii, an ethnic Mongolian
Chinese living in exile in Ulaanbaatar, said. “People just can”t stand it any
more,” he said. “They have no way of following their traditional way
of life. The death of the herder has become a spark, it has united the whole
Mongolian people (in China).”

The demonstrators said their
protests would continue if the Chinese Embassy did not report any improvement
in the situation in Inner Mongolia.