Our newspaper (Zuunii Medee) reported on the case of Batzangaa, a citizen of China, who was arrested by four Chinese and ten Mongolian policemen in front of the United Nations Refugee Agency office building in the capital Ulaanbaatar.

The Chinese authorities claim that “Batzangaa was arrested because he fled China without returning a large amount of a loan that he borrowed from the local government while he established a Mongol-Tibet school in Ordos Banner (correction: should be League---SMHRIC) of Inner Mongolia”. However, Mongolian legal experts explained that no police from any country have the right to travel to a foreign country to make an arrest on foreign soil, especially of someone who has applied for political refugee status in the foreign country. General D.Murun, head of the Office of Immigration, Naturalization, and Foreign Citizens of Mongolia explained the case to our newspaper.

Correspondent: Police of our country [Mongolia] cooperated with the police from China and arrested a citizen of Southern (Inner) Mongolia on our soil. Is there any legal ground on which our police are allowed to “make way” for foreign police on our soil?

D.Murun: The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China has a government agency for customs check and screening, with which we always work together due to its similar functions and responsibilities with ours. This agency sent us an official note regarding Batzangaa, former Principal of a school, who fled China and came to Mongolia without returning 52 million yuan [1] he borrowed from the local government [2]. Two officers of this agency came to our country with confidential information and documents on this case. Two officials from the agency came to Mongolia with materials related to his case. In connection with this, our investigation found that the citizen of Southern (Inner) Mongolia Batzangaa, along with his wife Bayanhuar and daughter Chileguun, entered Mongolia through Zamiin-uud on May 26 this year with a 30-day visa obtained from the Council of Mongolia in Ereen (Er Lian in Chinese) City. It was also found that after the expiration of his 30-day visa he had stayed in Mongolia illegally for 5 months. According to our laws, foreign citizens must register with the Foreign Citizens bureau within 7 days of arrival. However, they did not register with us. It is true that the police authorities cooperated to locate his whereabouts.

Correspondent: What is your comment on the fact that the Chinese police made the arrest in our country?

D.Murun: It was not an arrest. You can say there is no violation of laws and regulations of Mongolia. In other words, with the cooperation of the General Police Authorities we merely found out that Batzangaa rents an apartment in Bayangol District. You can’t say the police of two countries made an arrest together. Our officers just asked the United Nations Refugee Agency Office to bring Batzangaa for a meeting, and he came to us and met with the personnel from the Inner Mongolian authorities of customs check and screening who spoke of his crime related to financial issues [3]. Some press reported that he was arrested along with his wife and daughter. In fact, at that time his wife and daughter were at their apartment.

Correspondent: Batzangaa informed Southern Mongolian human rights organizations of the fact that he has not committed any crime. Human rights organizations see he has been detained for political reasons.

D.Murun: We don’t know whether he committed any crime and whether he applied for a political refugee status [4]. You might want to clarify this with the United Nations Refugee Agency Office that is responsible for these issues. We have just done what we have to do. We determined that it makes sense that after meeting with his country’s officials, he should go back to his country to deal with his problems. As a result, he along with his wife and daughter left for China by a CA Airline flight on October 4.

Correspondent: What work did he do during his stay in our country?

D.Murun: It was confirmed that he had not done any work. They were fined for their illegal stay for 5 months in accordance with our law.