Mongolians burn Chinese flag in Tiananmen protest

ULAN BATOR, June 4 (Reuters) - A handful of Mongolian protesters burned a Chinese flag near the Chinese embassy in Ulan Bator on Friday, the 10th anniversary of the Chinese military suppression of Tiananmen Square based protests. They demanded China release detained human rights activists and give freedom to Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet, China's main ethnic minority regions.

``Inner Mongolia - freedom!,'' ``Freedom for Tibet,'' and ``Tiananmen - 10 years'' said the slogans on banners in front of the Mongolian National University, next to the Chinese embassy. The home-made flag which was burned bore black stars, instead of the Chinese banner's gold stars, as a sign of mourning.

``We demand the release of thousands of human rights activists and dissidents who are in China's prisons because of their differing views,'' said Erdenetsogt, a member of the Movement for National Unity.

``Today we mourn and remember how tanks rolled over students as if they were cockroaches,'' he said.

Erdenetsogt said his group was seeking the restoration of Mongolian culture in Mongolia, Russia and Inner Mongolia and freedom for ethnic minorities in China.

``We demand political freedom, freedom to practise religion, and freedom for our culture in Inner Mongolia,'' he said. ``But all must happen in very peaceful ways.''

Chinese outnumber Mongolians in Inner Mongolia by four to one.

China has cracked down on protest movements by students and intellectuals in Inner Mongolia in the past decade and many pro-democracy activists have moved abroad, the protesters said.

``Dozens of intellectuals have been detained and human rights in Inner Mongolia are gravely violated,'' said one protester. ``The Communist party should take responsibility of it.''

``All dissidents should be released immediately,'' he said.

Mongolia, now a parliamentary democracy, abandoned 70 years of Communism in 1990, a year after the Chinese army crushed seven weeks of student-led protests centered on Tiananmen Square. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people were killed.

02:58 06-04-99