Gundalai's freedom cheers public in Ulaanbaatar

A 25 hours long public shock out of a brutal arrest and series of mass events demanding for freedom of Gundalai Lamjav, a democratic leader, had the happy ending. He was released from detention center Gants Hudag today around 3.30p.m. Mr.Davaajav, the Capital city prosecutor issued a decision to free Gundalai concluding that the police had broken several laws of Mongolia while arresting Gundalai.

By 5p.m. Gundalai was at home with his family while his supporters were waiting for him at the Democratic Central Office. The decorated by Gundalai's arrest photos Democratic central office was full of party supporters, journalists and other people by 6p.m. when Gundalai came there. Applauds, press conferences and speeches on democracy cheered everybody for an hour.

"I knew that people were protesting against the arrest, but I did not know how did you do it. There was no means to have information from outside. I thank you everybody who have been supporting me for last 25 hours" said Gundalai. He looked tired but cheerful. Often made jokes on the detention center conditions. "Prison cell was dirty and dark, I had to kill around 40 flies in order to get a little sleep. There was no newspaper to kill flies, I used my socks instead" he joked. "As food was bad I preferred to lose weight". ( The detention center "gants hudag" has a bad reputation concerning its condition and torture. Liberty Center has issued several alerts on this detention center which you can find from our web site.)

By 7p.m. Mr.Gundalai was invited by Mr.Tumur-Ochir, the Speaker of the State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia for a short meeting. During his meeting with Gundalai, Mr.Tumur-Ochir told that he established a working group responsible to investigate the arrest and report it to the Parliament. "There will be no extraordinary session of the Parliament as we do not have reason to convene it." he said. Mr.Gundalai, MP, and Mr.Ganbold Da , former MP, expressed their serious concerns about Police's repeated rude behavior and urged the parliament to announce who were behind them. "I think that the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs, under which the Police Offices operate, shall carry the final responsibility" said Gundalai.

Immediate Reactions Of Mongolian Mass Media and Public

It is doubtful that any Mongolian media organizations and their staff had sleep or rest since yesterday's 2.30p.m. For last one night, all press houses were fully operating to print out much more amount of newspapers than they usually do in a day.

For example, the newspaper 'Mongol Times' which usually is printed around 5,000 copies of each issue, has been printed out in 200,000 copies to be disseminated for free! Some daily newspapers like "Udriin Sonin" disseminated half of their copies for free although the lines for newspapers were long enough at any newspaper selling points by 11a.m. Photos on arrest and video tapes on it were also offered for free to all media. Mr.B.Battulga, 43, a photographer from daily newspaper "Mongoliin Medee", whose photos were used by Liberty Center yesterday, volunteered to disseminate his photos to all interested newspapers and individuals for free. All newspapers issued today had used his photos on the front pages. Video tapes made by a small private TV team "Lkha" and tapes made by a freelance journalist Ms.Uyanga and reporters from "Channel -25" were also offered for free to all interested studio and TVs. Information exchange between themselves and offering each other free information by media organizations were remarkably fast and easy which showed a new face of a dynamic and united free press that is grown enough to support democracy when it is under challenge.

All FM radios including 105.5, 104.5 , 107 etc. aired live reportages on the arrest and have become voice of the public while allowing citizens to express their opinions freely. It was FM105.5's 6p.m.-8p.m. live broadcasting of yesterday where people initiated to demonstrate for Gundalai's freedom and for democracy. The initiative has met wide support during the broadcast and 3000 gathered to demonstrate at 10a.m. next morning i.e. today.

The first private TV "Channel -25" was in mouths of thousands to thank for its airing the most comprehensive video reportage on the arrest. Although the Channel-25 was not able to shoot every process that happened between 1.00-2.30p.m. of yesterday, it was able to show most of the case thanks to other media journalists' work. Solidarity of free journalists were remarkable when it came to oppose brutal force.

Thanks to the immediate actions taken by the media organizations, the Ulaanbaatar citizens were widely informed about the real picture of the arrest, democracy challenge, positions of political parties and the police and were able to express their protest via media.

But until today's 6.10p.m. two third of Mongolian population - rural people remained with one-sided information dictated by the state owned National TV and radio which operates under direct control of Mr.Enkhbayar Nambar, the Chairman of the Mongolian Revolutionary Party (ex-communist party which did not change its name since 1924) and the Prime Minister of Mongolia.

Six Hours Demonstration To Have Two Minutes

By 10.30a.m. of July 25, the square before the Democratic Central Office was crowded with around 3000-4000 demonstrators holding posters of different size and contents. Every demonstrator had something to hold. Posters were most supportive to democracy, freedom and Gundalai.

"Democracy is in danger", "Free Gundalai immediately", "Resign Nyamdorj"(Nyamdorj is the Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs) , "Show the truth, National TV!", "Our freedom is shutting down", "Gundalai is patriot" were the most common posters among various other ones. There were some hip hop posters like "Let's deny from meat" and "Gundalai is a real ch-ka" which had the second political meanings. For example, while the abbreviated name of the ruling ex- communist party would look like "of meat" in Mongolian language, the word "ch-ka" had the positive meaning of a "Cool secret agent".

The meeting at the Democratic Central Office raised many issues about how shall Mongolians be urgent and aware of defending democracy.

"I think Gundalai has become the worst enemy for the current communist party because it was he who demanded for them to implement their election promises, because it was Gundalai who demanded the Prime Minister Enkhbayar to reveal the corruption offer-er, it was Gundalai who spoke on behalf of us at the most undemocratic parliament of last 13 years, and it was he who urged to investigate the Justice Minister's contact with a foreign intelligence agents" said Mr.Ganbold Da, a democracy swallow of 1990s and former MP whose speech found the loudest support and applauds.

After criticizing that the national TV did not show the arrest's real picture, the demonstrators issued a demand for the national TV to show it within today. All demonstrators walked from the center of the city to the National TV station where they had to patiently continue their demonstration for more four hours.

Almost three and half hours dispute between the representatives of the demonstrators and the TV leadership occurred inside the National TV building was live on air by three FM radios. Demonstrators and walkers-by would hear how the national TV program officer was shouting rudely to one of representatives that he will "step on his small body". The representatives of the demonstrators were demanding for the National TV to show a piece of documentary on arrest during the major evening news called "Tsagiin hurd". This is the most popular evening news program aired by the only TV aired nationwide.

By 4p.m. the representatives came out of the TV station's buildings with the result of their demand.

"The National TV will show two minutes video on the arrest during today's Tsagiin hurd" announced Mr.Bat-Uul , the leader of the representing group. Demonstrators were unhappy. They did not applaud and shouted "we pay our tax for the true news, we want more!". But Mr.Bat-Uul smiled and said "Yes, two minutes are too short. But imagine, we fought to get these two minutes and in this two minutes we can show how they arrested Gundalai. Herders will see it today!" which cheered everybody and their applauds.

"We just saw how the professional journalists have become the slave of their positions when the national TV is under control of the ruling party's chairman. Our two minutes of today's Tsagiin Hurd is our contribution to re-establish democracy in this country. We fought to show the truth to our rural citizens and we did it" said Mr.Gansukh, the General Secretary of the Democratic Party.

By the time when the demonstration was ending, Mr.Gundalai was being informed about his release from the detention center "Gants Hudag".

Liberty Center's next alert on Gundalai's arrest will follow soon. It is expected to say more about the reasons why police took this action against Gundalai and why they argued that it was possible to use force.