The following is a statement made by SMHRIC Director Enghebatu Togochog at "Disappearing Victims of Chinese Colonialism" Webinar hosted by Center for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement (CHASE) on August 30, 2022, marking the United Nations International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance:

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to friends and audiences in different time zones.

First of all, I would like to thank you, Mr. Vijay Kranti and your colleagues from Center for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement, for organizing this special Webinar to mark the “United Nations’ International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance”, and providing me an opportunity to highlight the Chinese colonial regime’s enforced disappearance in Southern Mongolia.

The United Nations International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance Article 1 says “No one shall be subjected to enforced disappearance” and Article 2 defined the “enforced disappearance” as this:

"enforced disappearance" is considered to be the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.

In light of this convention and other internationally accepted standards on enforced disappearance, here I would like to bring to your attention some of most prominent cases of enforced disappearance of Mongolian dissidents, activists, writers, students and ordinary herders in Southern Mongolia. 

The first is the case of Mr. Hada and his family members. Mr. Hada was arrested in 1995 and sentenced to 15 years in jail in 1996 by the Chinese authorities on charges of “splitting the country and engaging in espionage”. He had served his full sentence term in the Inner Mongolia Jail No.4 in Chifeng City. According to the Chinese criminal law, Hada should be freed on December 10, 2010 upon the completion of his 15 years jail term. Not only did the Chinese authorities refuse to free him, but also they arrested and detained his all family members including his wife Ms.Xinna and his son Mr.Uiles a week before Hada’s expected release date. 

Instead of being released, Hada was secretly transferred to the Autonomous Region capital Hohhot and held in a secret prison for another 4 years without any legal justification by the Chinese authorities. After this 4 years of extrajudicial detention, he was placed under house arrest in an apartment owned and run by the Chinese State Security authorities. Chinese State Security personnel guarded him around the clock. He had no freedom of movement and freedom of communication. After the 2020 large scale protest in Southern Mongolia. Mr. Hada has completely disappeared. His health condition and whereabouts are unknown today.

His family members have also been subjected to frequent harassment and enforced disappearance. After about a two-year long extrajudicial detention, his wife Ms.Xinna was sentenced to 3 years in jail with 5 reprieve last year on a trumped up charge of “engaging in illegal business”, referring to her Mongolian bookstore. Their son Uiles was imprisoned for 3 years in a juvenile prison on trumped-up charges of robbery and detained for another year on another trumped up charge of “drug possession”. 

Both mother and son were placed under what is called the “residential surveillance”, a form of house arrest. They were denied the right to liberty, right to movement, right to communication and right to employment. After the 2020 protest in Southern Mongolia, the entire family has going missing, and their whereabouts and health conditions remain unknown.

Second case I would like to bring to your attention is the case of Ms.Huuchinhuu, a human rights activist and dissident writer. She was arrested in November 2010 by the Chinese authorities for rallying the Mongols through the Internet to cheer for Hada’s scheduled release. Since then she has disappeared. In 2016, we learned that Ms. Huuchinhuu died of cancer at the age of 61 in a hospital closely guarded by Chinese State Security authorities. Until her last breath, at her deathbed she had been monitored and guarded by Chinese State Security personnel around the clock for her “possible threat to the national interest and state security of China.”

Huuchinhuu’s son, and only family member, Mr. Cheel Borjigin also died of brain cancer in the United States few month after her death. As an outspoken critic of the Chinese Government, returning Southern Mongolia to visit his mother was totally impossible for Cheel. His multiple requests to the Chinese Government to allow his mother to come to the United States for medical treatment have been turned down.

The third is the case of Mr.Sodmongol, an indigenous right activist and cyber dissident, who was arrested at the Beijing Capital International Airport on April 2010 by the Chinese authorities as he was departing China to attend the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) 9th Session in New York.

At the request from the UN Special Rapporteur on Rights of Indigenous Peoples Dr. James Anaya’s request on the case, the Chinese Government responded in a letter stating that Sodmongl “engaged in counterfeiting book registration numbers and illegally publishing and selling books, and is suspected of being involved in illegal crimes, on 20 April 2010, he was arrested and detained by the Liaoning Chaoyang Public Security Office. His case is currently being tried.” It has been almost 12 years since his disappearance. His whereabouts, health status and the outcome of the trial remain unknown.

The fourth is the mass scale enforced disappearance of Mongolian students, teachers, educational workers and ordinary Mongolians who had participated in 2020 large-scale resistance movement against the Chinese Government’s cultural genocide campaign in Southern Mongolia.

After 7-decade long genocide, ethnic cleansing, political repression, economic exploitation, cultural assimilation and environmental destruction, in 2020, the Government of China targeted the Southern Mongolians’ last defense of national identity that is the language. A new policy called the “Second Generation Bilingual Education” is implemented in Southern Mongolia to completely wipe out Mongolian language, culture and identify from Southern Mongolia.

In response to this new round of cultural genocide, the entire Southern Mongolian population stood up. Hundreds of thousands of students took to the streets, and millions of parents and teachers launched a total school boycott. Of course, the Chinese regime responded with a heavy handed crackdown. We estimate more than 10,000 Southern Mongolians were arrested, detained, imprisoned and placed under house arrest.

Following this crackdown, what the Chinese authorities are carrying out today is a region-wide intensive training program called the “Training for the Firm Inculcation of Chinese Nationality Common Identity”. Under of the slogan of “Speak Chinese and Become a Civilized Person”, the entire Mongolian population including students, teachers, government officials and ordinary herders are subjected to this training to discard their “narrow nationalistic identity” and become a “civilized” member of Chinese Nationality. Those Mongolians who refuse to accept the so-called “Chinese nationality common identity” are subjected to “enforced disappearance”. An individual who is currently under house arrest in Southern Mongolia, told us through a confidential channel that tens of thousands of young Southern Mongolians have “disappeared” recently for speaking up for their right to mother tongue. This is what is happening in Southern Mongolia now.

China is a signatory of number of international human rights conventions including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples, United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. International community and the United Nations must hold China accountable for her atrocities including enforced disappearance committed in her occupied nations of Southern Mongolia, Tibet and East Turkistan.

Thank you!

Enghebatu Togochog

Director

Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC)