Mongols Protest for Hada and Tegshi in San Francisco
by M. Altanbat
Of the Inner Mongolian People's Party
San Francisco, December 6, 1997, Saturday, a group of Mongols protested in front of the General Consulate office of China. The demonstration was organized by members of the Inner Mongolian People's Party (IMPP) and the Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance. M. Altanbat, and other Mongolian activists, joined by American supporters carried high the blue banner of the IMPP, and placards reading 'Free Inner Mongolia', 'Give Independence and Freedom to Inner Mongolia' and 'Communist Party of China - murderers of 350,00 Inner Mongolians', 'China, Clear out of Inner Mongolia', 'Down with the Communist Party of China', 'Immediately Release Hada, Tegshi and all Prisoners of Conscience'. The IMPP accuses the Chinese government of pursuing a policy of political, social and cultural repression in the Mongolian nation of Southern (Inner) Mongolia. This policy of total domination of the Mongols started with the 1947 occupation of their lands. The protesters shouted slogans demanding an end to Chinese occupation of Mongolian lands, and condemned the Chinese policy of genocide and forced assimilation. Over the past 50 years of occupation, it is estimated that more than 350,000 Mongols have been killed by the Communist party of China, and more than a million have been imprisoned and maimed. More than 20 million Chinese from other provinces have been resettled in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, representing one of the most heinous acts of population transfer carried out in the history of modern civilization, in order to eliminate the social and cultural integrity of another nationality. According to Altanbat, the Inner Mongols are at a critical juncture of their history, and their fight for freedom is a struggle for life or death. At the end of the protest, the Mongolian activists burned the flag of China.