By: Jessica Ties
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

HOHHOT, Inner Mongolia – Chinese authorities are being accused of attempting to cover up the killing of an Ethnic Mongolian herdsmen who was struck by an oil truck while protesting the destruction of grazing land in the Uushin Banner district of Inner Mongolia.

Zorigt, was one of several local Inner Mongolian herders involved in protests attempting to prevent the destruction of their land by “… unregulated Chinese oil and gas transport trucks that drive roughshod through their grazing lands and kill livestock.”

Conflicts between herders trying to protect their grazing land and the Shuurhei Oil-Gas Field transporters have resulted in numerous beatings that have caused several herdsmen, including Zorigt, to be hospitalized.

The Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC) has claimed that the Chinese government is attempting to “…prevent possible unrest by the Mongolians…” and that they had “…preemptively reported on the event, calling it a ‘traffic accident.’” This report, however, has since been removed from other Chinese language internet news sites.

The government’s fear of protests stems from demonstrations that occurred after a similar incident last May. On May 10 another herdsman, Murgen, was run down by the driver of a coal truck as he tried to prevent him from driving over the pasture.

The May killing catalyzed mass demonstrations that were fueled not only by the herdsman’s death, but also by Inner Mongolian anger at the exploitation of natural resources and the apparent erosion of Inner Mongolian self-rule by Han Chinese settlers and developers.

The protests resulted in a government crackdown and the execution of the man convicted of killing Murgen with his truck.

Given the lingering anger of many Inner Mongolians, the Chinese government allegedly hopes to avoid a repeat of the May protests by claiming that the death was caused by Zorigt’s own recklessness in attempting to pass a truck on his motorcycle and was not another intentional killing by a truck driver.

According to the SMHRIC, the government has combated the accusations by posting messages in internet chat rooms to encourage people to disregard the rumors that the death was intentional. One message states, “[s]ome people who have hidden intentions are interpreting it as an ethnic problem or a conflict with the oil and natural gas development.”

Ethnic Mongolians claim that mining and desertification, defined as land degradation that is often caused by human activity, have ruined their grazing lands and that the Han Chinese majority has been the main beneficiaries of the resulting economic development.

 

For more information, please see:

BBC – Truck Kills Herder in Inner Mongolia China – 24 October 2011

China Digital Times – Truck Kills Protesting Herder in Inner Mongolia – 24 October 2011

Radio Free Asia – Group Charges Cover-Up – 24 October 2011

Reuters – Truck Kills Herder in China Inner Mongolia Protest: Group – 24 October 2011

Straits Times – Truck Driver Kills Ethnic Mongol Herder in China Land Dispute – 24 October 2011