Mongolia MPs, backing protesters, quit parliament

ULAN BATOR - Twenty-six Mongolian MPs walked out of parliament on Friday in solidarity with protesters demonstrating against government corruption and foreign control of minerals and resources.

Hundreds of Mongolians have occupied the main Freedom Square for nine days, marching around the parliament building and some camping out in traditional round, white "ger" tents pitched on the flagstones.

The MPs, mostly from the opposition Democratic Party, vowed not to return to parliament, or the Great Hural, until the government responded to protesters' demands, which include calls for increased transparency in negotiations with foreign miners for investment terms in exploiting mineral deposits.

"We have left the parliament until the government starts negotiating with the civil movement and the people on the streets and in tents on the square," said MP Lambajav.

"We shall not participate in the Great Hural until these issues have been solved," he said.

The protests have occurred as Canadian miner Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. negotiates an agreement with the government that would set the investment terms for a planned copper and gold mine in the Gobi desert.

The company says its planned US$1.2 billion investment for the mammoth project would eventually bring billions of dollars in taxes and thousands of construction and mining jobs to Mongolia.

But protesters say the government must win better terms and meet broader demands for transparency and accountability.

The MPs in the walk-out also denounced the use of force on Thursday that lead to scuffles on the square with police and the destruction of a ger and the removal of several others.

"(We) are strongly against the government attempt to stop the protests by use of force," Lambajav said.

Protesters welcomed the development and vowed to carry on.

"This is great news," said Arslan, a civil rights advocate, adding that students would now join.

Mongolians converged on the square in January to protest against parliament's dissolution of the government.

The crisis began when more than half the cabinet, all members of the MPRP, which ran Mongolia as a Soviet satellite for much of the 20th century, quit the government of Prime Minister Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, a Democrat.

Power shuffles are not new in Mongolia. Four governments were formed in four years the last time the Democrats were in power, between 1996 and 2000.

- REUTERS