O.K. so my vote for peace and quiet obviously wasn't counted. Last night (Tuesday) there was a HUGE protest because the socialist party dominated all seats of the parliament in the election that took place on Sunday. There were thousands of Mongolians at the socialist government building, first yelling and rallying then people got all riled up and started throwing rocks, busting out the windows, then that got more people spurred on and they threw a fire bomb, and burned the building down. This is all right down in the center of Ulaanbaatar. We watched it all live on television and sat in shock that this was going on. Mongolians are usually extremely passive people, but they are angry now. I really felt sorry for the policemen. There were only about 50 police against all these angry people. They started attacking the police. One policeman was blinded, many more severely injured.
The news as of today is that there are 6 confirmed dead (I suspect many more). So we (foreigners) are under curfew, from 10p.m.- 8a.m. (no problems there) and you cannot go out without your passport. If caught without your passport, you may be "detained" for up to 3 days. This is just supposed to be until Saturday.
We aren't scared, it is just a little unsettling, not knowing what might happen next. I do feel sorry for the Mongolians, they were ruled by communist for hundreds of years and have just had their freedom since 1991, and now face communist rule again.
2 comments:
I love the blog!
Holy cow! that is kind of like when we all gathered around our tv's and watched the twin tower incident. Totally unbelievable! Stay safe! And for heaven's sake, glue that passport to your waist or something! :) If you also have to carry passports for all your kids... you are going to need to drag a suitcase full of passports around with you every where you go! Hurry up Saturday!
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