Demands for Reform Reach Mongolia
Popular demands for reforms that have changed the politics of Eastern Europe have spread as far as remote Mongolia, where up to 5,000 people demonstrated Sunday in the capital, Ulan Bator, residents said Monday.
The peaceful rally was the Communist country’s largest in recent history--and perhaps the world’s coldest, lasting more than an hour in temperatures of 22 below zero.
“Mongolian brothers and sisters, to your horses,” said the largest banner.
Residents contacted by telephone from neighboring China said the city, a jumble of tents and concrete buildings, was calm Monday but that another protest was expected Sunday.
The rally was organized by the Mongolian Democratic Union, an opposition group set up by students and intellectuals last month. The group claims 60,000 members. The national Communist Party has acknowledged the need for reform.
Mongolia, an ally of Moscow sandwiched between China and the Soviet Union, has been a Communist state since 1921.
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