On November 8, 2014, Mr. Ayungaa, a 19-year old Mongolian herder from Saruultal Gachaa, Bogdo-uul Sum of western Southern (Inner) Mongolia’s Abag Banner (“A Ba Ga Qi” in Chinese) was run over while on horseback by a Chinese mining truck from Jin Di Mining Group on his grazing land. Pictures show that both the rider and the horse died under the wheels of the truck.

The Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC) was able to obtain the phone number of Ayungaa’s father. Multiple calls to the phone number remain unanswered.

“Surveillance is tight here, and no one is allowed to talk about this case online,” Mr. Bayaraa, a herder from Saruultal Gachaa told SMHRIC over the phone, “even phone calls from us to the victim’s family members and relatives appear to have been blocked.”

An official statement issued by the Abag Banner Department of Propaganda confirms that “on November 8, 2014 around 11:00 AM, there happened a traffic accident in which someone died in a place 184 meters away from the cement road running from Jin Di Mining Zone to its Flotation Mill.”

The document declared “currently, the driver involved in the case remains in detention by the Abag Banner Public Security Bureau on a crime of traffic accident”. It further stated that “the Public Security authorities will handle the case in a fair and open manner in accordance with laws.”

Internet posts regarding the case on Chinese social media outlets including Wei Xin, Xin Lang and Teng Xun were immediately deleted. Multiple calls to the Abag Banner hospital funeral home where the dead herder’s body was reportedly cremated remain unanswered.

This became the fifth of its kind reported since May 2011 when another Mongolian named Mr. Mergen was brutally killed by a Chinese coal-hauling truck while defending his grazing land from Chinese miners. The killing of Mergen ignited region-wide demonstrations and protests by Mongolian students and herders who demanded the protection of Mongolian grazing land and legal rights of the Mongolian herders.

Only 5 months after this major protest, another Mongolian herder named Zorigt was killed in strikingly similar circumstances in Uushin Banner of Ordos region. Fearing possible unrest of the Mongolians, the Chinese authorities completely concealed information about the case. The case was handled behind closed doors. According to information SMHRIC received later on, family members of Zorigt were warned not to disclose any information to outsiders. The case was settled with some monetary payment to the family.

In July 2013, another herder from eastern Southern Mongolia’s Ongniud Banner committed Samurai-like heroic suicide after stabbing one official from the Chinese “Livestock Grazing Ban Patrol Team” to death and injured another in defense of his livestock from being arbitrarily confiscated. Under China's Livestock Grazing Ban”, grazing livestock on grassland is considered an "illegal act" and the “Livestock Grazing Ban Patrol Team” is authorized the right to confiscate herders’ livestock grazing on grassland and carry out arrest, detention, and torture to the herders who do not comply. The local authorities determined the nature of this case as a “criminal” act and removed all relevant information from social media.

In August 2013, a 58-year old Mongolian herder named Mr. Bayanbaatar from Uushin Banner of western Southern Mongolia’s Ordos region was brutally beaten to death by Chinese railroad workers while he was defending his grazing land. His son was severely injured. Several other herders were also beaten. The Chinese railroad workers not only threatened to kill other herders if they continued to protest but also sent some of their fellow workers to bring knives to carry out the killing. The local police arrived late to the scene, but reportedly refused to carry out any arrest of the killer or other offenders. The case was again decided behind closed doors.

As China intensifies her operations of extractive industries and other economic development in Southern Mongolia, not only have the Mongolian herders who defended their grazing land been killed, beaten up, arrested, detained and sent to jail, but also their livestock have been killed by increasingly unregulated mining trucks and heavy machinery on a daily basis. In a shocking video clip SMHRIC obtained and posted on the Internet, a flock of sheep and goats were brutally run over on a highway by a heavily loaded truck. In this hit-and-run case, the truck disappeared quickly and the helpless herder was left with a few surviving injured animals and brutally jammed dead carcasses of his livestock. The video clip can be seen here: http://www.smhric.org/images/Toronto_Meeting/Chinese-killing-Mongolian-livestock.mov