Well it is old news now (a mere two weeks ago), but a few people have asked me about the riots and if things have stabilised. The election was on a Sunday. The Friday before a big parade went past our apartment. It was a parade by supporters of the incumbent government (the ones who later had their headquarters burned). I felt like a bit of a paparazi getting photos from my balcony.
The riots occured on the Tuesday afternoon following the election. Chris and I tried to have lunch at a French restaurant near where the riots started (they had no coffee and half the items on the menu were unavailable, which is unusual here). Later the same restaurant had one of its big windows smashed. I wrote in my journal at the time, so here is what I was thinking then:
2 July 2008
Last night, all yesterday afternoon in fact, there was a major riot about 10 minutes walk away and we were unaware. We knew there was some kind of march going on at lunchtime, as we heard it when we were out for lunch. It wasn't until 10:30pm when Jannie (ADRA staff member, who is married to someone who works for the UNICEF) rang and told us to turn on Mongolian television. There we watched video footage of the riot that started that afternoon, and live footage of the ongoing riot and fires. The fire has spread into the National Gallery of Modern Art, and apparently some paintings have been lost. We only visited that gallery last Friday. Jannie rang again at 1am to tell us that the UN had instructed all UN-related personnel to stay at home the next day.
We had to wait until this morning before we found all the online news services in English to tell us that a State of Emergency was in place for four days, with a 10pm - 8am curfew. The riot was about accusations of electoral fraud. It seemed to catch everyone by surprise, and it took the police and army several hours to mobilise a response. Several Mongolians I have spoken with said it was very strange.
I find it strange to be in a place where I am so detached from what is going on around me due to a langauge barrier. There are lots of police on the streets today, but otherwise life seems to have returned to normal around us. We closed the office and spent a nice day with the girls and Jannie's kids.
The websites below are good for general news on Mongolia and also news of the riots. I have also pasted a link to a Flicker site with photos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7485473.stm
http://mongolianstudies.
http://asiangypsy.blogspot.
At the moment talks are continuing between the parties, but it looks like the election results will stand with maybe a recount in a seat or two in the city. Most of our staff were stunned, this kind of thing is "not-Mongolian", but as a lot of the news reports said, there is a wideining divide between the haves and have-nots here, and what it means to be "Mongolian" is always changing.
