MONGOLIA: Families concerned with relatives missing after Mongolia post-election riots

Record ID: 494989

  • Title: MONGOLIA: Families concerned with relatives missing after Mongolia post-election riots
  • Date: 5th July 2008
  • Summary: (BN11) ULAN BATOR, MONGOLIA (JULY 4, 2008) (REUTERS) DISTRICT WHERE ULAN BATOR'S MAIN DETENTION CENTRE, DENJIIN MYANGA DETENTION CENTRE, IS LOCATED EXTERIOR OF DENJIIN MYANGA DETENTION CENTRE FAMILIES AND RELATIVES OF DETAINED PEOPLE WAITING OUTSIDE CENTRE SOLDIERS CORDONING OFF ROAD BESIDE FAMILY MEMBERS AND RELATIVES WHO ARE WAITING POLICE, SOLDIERS AND FAMILY MEMBERS AN
  • Embargoed: 20th July 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mongolia
  • Country: Mongolia
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8B2905SJOZKZDXTKEIDMUYY8C
  • Story Text: Anxious family members wait for news outside the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator's main detention centre after the arrest of their relatives for suspected involvement in post-election rioting.
    More than a hundred family members and relatives of those detained during Mongolia's post-election riot were waiting for news of their loved ones outside Ulan Bator's main detention centre on Friday (July 4).
    Mongolia's opposition has called for a re-run of Sunday's election in some areas, in a challenge to preliminary results that showed the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) won a majority in parliament.
    Allegations of cheating led stone-throwing mobs to set the MPRP headquarters on fire on Tuesday (July 1) in a night of violence that killed five and prompted the president to impose a four-day state of emergency.
    Officials said about 700 protesters have been detained as an overnight curfew was set in place as part of the emergency rule.
    Many of the people waiting outside the Denjiin Myanga detention centre said they were not given sufficient information about the status of their loved ones.
    And they are just waiting every day outside the centre for news or for the release of their family members.
    One woman who did not want to be identified said she was waiting here because she could not find her son who has been missing for three days.

    "He has a mobile phone. I called from the Sukhbaatar district but he did not answer. When I asked the Sukhbaatar district police about his whereabouts, they asked me to go to the state investigation office. Later, the state investigation office sent me here. But I also cannot find any information about him here. So I am just waiting," she said.
    She said her son is working as a construction worker in the capital but did not believe he was involved in the rioting.
    She added residents in the hilly district where the detention centre is situated told her they witnessed the detainees being treated badly.

    "I am worried and people here are talking different things about the situation such as the detainees being beaten up. Some of them went up the hill and saw detainees made to squat down and walk in line. And if some of them fainted, they called in the doctor. They talked about such harsh conditions," the woman added.
    The residents in the area were able to see the situation from their homes overlooking the detention centre, and they said detainees were being held outside in overcrowded conditions.
    Another woman who did not want to be identified said her son was arrested when he was walking out of his home to the grocery store on the night of the protest.
    She said her son was watching the riot on television that night and was definitely not involved in it. Now, she is worried authorities might force him to confess to being a rioter.

    "First I found out that he was here but the next time I came, his name was not on the list anymore. So I went to the investigation office, but he was not there. Who knows if he is being kept somewhere and forced to sign some confessions," she said.
    On Thursday (July 3), family members and relatives had scuffles with police and soldiers who were guarding the detention centre.
    Angry relatives said they were pushed around by police when they demanded more information about those detained in the centre.
    They said more policemen with riot gear were called in to manage the crowd as the people got more upset with the way they were treated.
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