10 in Opposition Held in Wake of Mongolia Protests

Ten Mongolian opposition party members were arrested after a series of illegal protest rallies against the government, residents said Saturday.

The apprehensions were the first known arrests of opposition party members since the birth of the pro-democracy movement last December. At least one of those arrested was sentenced to 25 days’ detention.

All 10 are members of the largest opposition group, the Mongolian Democratic Assn., which held rallies Friday in the northern province of Hovsogol and in the capital, Ulan Bator, residents said.

They said Friday’s rally in central Ulan Bator attracted 10,000 people. Unarmed troops were called in for the first time since December, but the demonstration passed peacefully.

Diplomats said the arrests showed that the Communists, in power since 1921, are tightening their grip in Mongolia, where mass protests forced the governing party to renounce its monopoly on power in March and call the country’s first free general elections.