Ethnic Mongolian Herders Call on State to End Attacks on People, Livestock


2016.08.09
china-herders-08092016.jpg Dead sheep belonging to herders from Ubuurbarag village in Inner Mongolia’s eastern Shin-Barag Left Banner, August 2016.
Photo provided by a herder.

Ethnic Mongolian herders in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia on Tuesday penned an open letter to the the regional government amid a bitter land dispute that has sparked violent clashes with the authorities in recent weeks.

Herders from Ubuurbarag village in Inner Mongolia’s eastern Shin-Barag Left Banner called on the regional government to intervene to protect them after alleged attacks that left local residents injured and their livestock dead, they told RFA.

"When the herders of Ubuurbarag went to graze their flocks and herds collectively at their summer camping grounds this year, they found the land had already been illegally occupied," the letter said.

The herders tried to explain at great length to the outsiders that they had the grazing rights under a legal contract with the government, but they refused to listen, the letter said.

"Instead, they mobilized dozens of people on July 12 to attack the defenseless herders with axes, steel bars and wooden poles," it said.

"A large number of people were severely injured after being beaten up by them."

But when the herders sought help from the government of the banner, which is the administrative equivalent of a county, police responded by holding three of them under administrative detention for up to 11 days, the herders said.

The attacks continued on Aug. 6, when more than 40 head of sheep were killed by the unidentified occupiers, using motor vehicles, local residents told RFA.

String of attacks

"[We] were attacked by Han Chinese people from elsewhere in China, and more than 40 of the herders' sheep were killed," a herder who asked to remain anonymous told RFA on Tuesday.

"On Aug. 7, they sent out a large number of people and vehicles and killed a lot of our flocks, then they threatened to kill the herders as well," the herder said.

The outsiders also drove away sheep, horses and cattle using fireworks, local residents said.

A string of similar attacks have been reported in the area since July, they told RFA.

A second Ubuurbarag resident said there had been two attacks on her brigade's flocks, once on July 12 and once on Aug. 8.

"They crushed the sheep to death using tractors, while some of them beat the sheep to death themselves," she said. "They also beat up some herders."

She said the newcomers were Han Chinese from Handagai Som, or village, around three hours' drive away, who had migrated from elsewhere in China.

"Their vehicles all had license plates from elsewhere in China," she said. "I'm pretty sure they were Han Chinese."

"But the grasslands they were occupying are leased collectively to six agricultural production brigades from [Ubuurbarag] village," she said.

An official from the local government told RFA the sheep were killed on a highway, however.

"Sheep are always getting run over on the roads; it's normal," the official said. "They wander on the roads."

But a third local resident said: "Their aim is to drive us off the land, which they said doesn't belong to us."

"But we have lived here since our grandparents were alive," she said. "We went to complain to the banner government, and they told us to wait a few days, but they still haven't sorted it out."

Ethnic Mongolians, who make up almost 20 percent of Inner Mongolia's population of 23 million, increasingly complain of widespread environmental destruction and unfair development policies in the region.

Clashes between Chinese state-backed mining or forestry companies and herding communities are common in the region, which borders the independent country of Mongolia.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

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