Freedom in the World 1999 - Mongolia

1999 Scores

Status: Free
Freedom Rating: 2.5
Civil Liberties: 3
Political Rights: 2

Overview

In 1999, Mongolia continued to consolidate democratic gains despite a third government change in fifteen months in July and the painful social costs of economic restructuring.

China controlled this vast Central Asian region for two centuries until 1911 and again from 1919 until a Marxist revolt in 1921. The Soviet-backed Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) formed a single-party Communist state in 1924, and for the next 65 years Mongolia was a virtual republic of the Soviet Union.

Mongolia held its first multiparty elections in July 1990 after pro-democracy demonstrations had forced the government to strip the MPRP of its status as the sole legal party two months earlier. The MPRP easily defeated an unprepared opposition. In September 1990 parliament named the MPRP's Punsalmaagiyn Orchirbat as president.

The 1992 constitution vested some governmental powers in a president who is directly elected for a four-year term. The president must approve candidates for prime minister and can veto legislation, subject to a two-thirds parliamentary override. The constitution also created a directly elected, 76-seat Great Hural (parliament).

The MPRP easily won the 1992 parliamentary elections, as many voters associated the opposition with free market reforms that had caused substantially higher prices and unemployment. In 1993, party hardliners forced Orchirbat off the MPRP ticket, but the president won reelection as the candidate of the two main opposition parties, the National Democratic Party (NDP) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

In 1994, the economy grew after four years of contraction, but the transition to a market economy continued to cause widespread hardship. In the June 1996 elections, held under a 92 percent turnout, an NDP-SDP coalition, called the Democratic Union Coalition (DUC), won 50 seats to sweep the MPRP out of power after 72 years. The MPRP won 25 seats and a minor party, 1.

New prime minister Mendsaihan Enksaikhan initiated a shock therapy program of spending freezes, price decontrols, pension cuts, and tariff reductions. But the reforms coincided with a sharp fall in world prices for two of Mongolia's biggest foreign revenue earners, copper and cashmere, which contributed to huge budget and trade deficits. In the May 1997 presidential elections, held with an 85 percent turnout, the MPRP's Nachagyn Bagabandy, a former parliamentary chairman who had emphasized social issues, won with 60.8 percent of the vote against Orchirbat's 29.8 percent.

The regional financial crisis that began in July 1997 curbed foreign direct investment and further hurt raw materials exporters. In April 1998, the NDP, the larger of the two main coalition partners, forced Prime Minister Enksaikhan's government to resign. In July, parliament voted out a government headed by the NDP's Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj over a controversial banking merger. In the ensuing months, President Bagabandy rejected several replacement candidates, creating a constitutional crisis over the president's role in the nomination process. On October 2, the DUC and Bagabandy reached agreement on the nomination as prime minister of Sanjaasuren Zorig, the leader of the pro-democracy movement that ended single-party rule. The same day, unknown assailants murdered Zorig in Ulaanbaatar. On December 9, 1998, parliament approved as Prime Minister Janlavin Narantsatsaralt, the Ulaanbaatar mayor.

In July 1999, Narantsatsaralt resigned after his government lost a parliamentary no-confidence vote over payment arrears for pensioners and teachers and its controversial plan to privatize a Russian-owned stake in a Mongolian copper mine. On July 30, parliament approved a new government headed by Renchinnyamiin Amarjargal, 38, a Moscow-trained economist.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Mongolians can change their government democratically. The independent judiciary includes a constitutional court that has sole jurisdiction over constitutional matters.

A key human rights concern in recent years has been prison conditions. In April 1999, authorities revealed that 1,451 prisoners had died in the previous six years as a result of illness and starvation (including 242 deaths out of a prison population of 6,172 in 1998). Many inmates came into the prisons already suffering from illness or starvation because of the appalling conditions in police detention, which is often a lengthy experience. Authorities have taken remedial measures, and the number of deaths per year has been declining, but implementation is often slow in rural areas. Police and prison officials occasionally beat detainees and prisoners.

Under a law that took effect on January 1, 1999, the government must privatize all state-owned print media, and transform the state television station and radio stations into a public broadcasting service headed by an independent board of governors. The actual privatization process has proceeded slowly. The state-owned media's coverage occasionally favors the government. Mongolia has scores of private newspapers representing diverse viewpoints, although only about a dozen appear regularly. In April, an unknown assailant slashed the face of a journalist who two months earlier had written a highly critical – and possibly unsubstantiated – article about a politician. Radio is a key source of information in the countryside, and the one independent radio station reaches most areas. There are at least two private television services, each with limited reach. Foreign satellite and cable broadcasts are available. Libel laws favor plaintiffs.

Freedoms of assembly and association are respected. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) actively promote human rights, child welfare, and other causes. Female-led NGOs have organized voter-education programs and have been increasingly active in politics.

The hardship associated with economic restructuring has frayed traditional social support systems and, along with high rates of alcohol abuse, has apparently contributed to domestic violence. Women are often better educated than men, but on average receive lower wages, hold only 8 of 76 seats in parliament, and are underrepresented at the higher levels in government, the judiciary, and the professions. There are several thousand street children in urban areas. Freedom of religion is respected in practice, and there is no official religion in this predominantly Buddhist country.

Trade unions are independent, although union membership is declining as large enterprises are shut down or privatized. Strikes and collective bargaining are legal, although in practice the country's difficult economic situation allows employers to unilaterally set wages and working conditions.

In October, a court sentenced three members of parliament from the ruling coalition to jail terms of up to five years for taking bribes from a company that won a tender for a gambling license. The case was Mongolia's first major corruption trial. In 1998, the gross domestic product grew 3.5 percent, and the inflation rate stood at 6.5 percent at year's end.