Dear brothers and sisters, good afternoon,

My name is Enhebatu Togochog, and I am from the Chinese Communist Party controlled Southern Mongolia. It is my great honor to be here today to join our Tibetan brothers and sisters and talk about what is going on in Southern Mongolia.

The traditional Southern Mongolia, commonly known as Inner Mongolia, is home to 4.5 million native Mongols. The region has been occupied by Communist China since 1947. During the past half century, a series of massacres, crackdowns, state-organized ethnic cleansing, cultural assimilation and population transfer of Chinese settlers into the region, have forced the indigenous Mongol population in this area to go through the darkest era ever in the history of the Mongol nation: at least 700,000 ethnic Mongols have been killed, maimed, tortured, sent to jail, arrested or detained; 3,000 Buddhist temples have been destroyed; a series of peaceful demonstrations by Mongolian students have been harshly suppressed and tens of hundreds of Mongolian dissidents have either been arrested and jailed or detained without proper trials; the ancestral land of the Mongols and the natural resources of Southern Mongolia have been exploited; large-scale of Chinese immigration to the area has not only made the indigenous Mongol population a minority on their own lands but it has led to a  total destruction of the ecological system.

The grasslands of Southern Mongolia which was known as one of the most well-preserved natural grasslands in the world is now undergoing a disastrous crisis due to the intensive cultivation and random exploitation by Chinese immigrants. More than 80% of the whole territory of Southern Mongolia has already become desert and soil-erosion areas. Most of the grasslands have vanished and sandstorms from the Mongolian Plateau reached Beijing. The “Ecological Migration” project is a response of the government to the problem. Instead of honestly addressing the true cause of the problem and offering reasonable and humane solutions, the policy places the responsibility for ecological degradation on the traditional nomadic life style of the Mongols and their livestock, notwithstanding the fact that the Mongol herders lived harmoniously with their lands for hundreds of years prior to the invasion of millions of Chinese farmers. It is clear that the policy of “Ecological Migration” is aimed at displacing the entire population of Mongolian herders from their ancestral lands to the overwhelmingly Chinese populated agricultural and urban areas. Since 2001, at least 450,000 indigenous Mongolian herders have been forcefully relocated. Thousands of Mongolian herders have lost their houses, livestock, lands and have been treated brutally by the authorities during the relocation process.

Mongols who try to express their opinions, promote and preserve their culture and tradition are subject to harsh punishment by the authorities. Peaceful organizations like “Ih Zuu League National Culture Society”, “Bayannuur League National Modernization Society”, “Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance”, and “Mongol Student’s Reading Club” were harshly suppressed by the authorities for merely attempting to preserve Mongolian culture. Organizations demanding rights of real autonomy that are guaranteed by the Chinese Constitution have been similarly suppressed. Mr. Hada is still in prison and routinely tortured by the prison guards for organizing the Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance. Members of the above mentioned organizations and hundreds of other Mongolian dissidents are closely monitored and deprived of all of their basic rights by the authorities.

Any assembly by the Mongols, no matter what its purpose and nature, is strictly controlled and subject to being labeled an “illegal gathering” by the authorities. Since last year, on at least three occasions, gatherings by the Mongols were suppressed by the government. In two of the three occasions, the government forced the cancellation of a concert organized by  Mongolian students. On another occasion, just two months ago, a Mongolian physician named Naguunbilig was arrested along with his wife Dagulaa by police for practicing Mongolian medicine and gathering Mongolian patients. The couple is still being detained at the No.1 Detention Center in Huhhot City.

The latest case we know of is particularly egregious, concerning Mongol villagers in eastern Inner Mongolia’s Hingaan League. In order to plunder the natural resource and open up an iron mine in Hingaan Oboo Village, the local government mobilized hundreds of policemen and thugs to intimidate the Mongol villagers who stood up to protect their ancestral land from being illegally occupied by Chinese businessmen. Dozens of the villagers were severely injured during a series of police attacks, and at least ten villagers were arrested and sent to labor camp. More than a hundred villagers are missing due to arbitrary arrests and constant attacks by the police and the daily life of the villagers has been totally disrupted.

Dear friends, for Southern Mongolians, it is easy to imagine what is going on in Tibet and how the Tibetans are suffering under the Chinese colonial regime. It is the international community’s biggest misfortune and the United Nations’ irreparable error in judgment to keep China as a member state of the United Nation Security Council in view of their poor human rights record.

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