GOLDMAN PRIZEWINNER SHOOTS UP FOREIGN MINING FIRMS IN MONGOLIA

WESTERN DECEPTIONS AND THE EXTINCTION OF THE NOMADS

Predatory capitalism has invaded Mongolia -- the savage western hordes overrunning the land -- and but for the recent Hollywood movie spectacle Mongol [1] and colorful travel magazine articles no one in America hears much of anything about the place. Behind the bells and whistles promoting 'democracy', 'conservation', 'human rights', and a 'free press', Mongolia is under attack and the people suffering a world of hurt. The same companies destroying Mongolia are destroying Congo and Canada and everywhere else they appear. Meanwhile, three years after winning the Goldman Environmental Prize -- the 'Green Nobel' -- Mongol herder Tsetsegee Munkhbayar shot at foreign mining operations and thus he is denounced and shunned by the same foreigners who recognized him as a hero. This is a story about the killing of the earth, the killing of truth, the killing of hope -- and the killing of the nomad's way.

In early September 2010, a small band of Mongolian citizens armed with hunting rifles opened fire on gold mining equipment owned by two foreign mining firms operating illegally in northern Mongolia. One of the four armed activists was Tsetsegee Munkhbayar, a 2007 winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize -- the 'Green Nobel' -- awarded annually to pivotal environmentalists taking a stand around the globe.

"With unwavering passion," reads the National Geographic Emerging Explorers profile of Tsetsegee Munkhbayar, "he inspired thousands of local villagers, held press conferences, organized town hall meetings, lobbied legislators, and led protest marches -- mobilizing an unprecedented level of grassroots participation among citizens who previously felt they had no power to shape government policy." [2]

Three years after winning the award -- and a whole lot more illegal mining and pollution later -- Munkhbayar's little gang of four and their militant actions against the capitalist invasion remain in complete media whiteout in the western press: it's as if the early September shootings never happened. While the civic activists face possible prosecution and extended jail terms -- if not sudden unexplained death -- rapacious mining companies further plunder and pollute the land.

The gang of four -- Tsetsegee Munkhbayar, G. Bayaraa, D. Tumurbaatar and O. Sambuu-Yondon -- are environmentalists from the United Movement of Mongolian Rivers and Lakes (UMMRL), a consortium of Mongolian groups organized to fight foreign extractive industries that have invaded the fledgling 'democracy'. UMMRL was formed in June 4, 2009 after its predecessor, the Mongolian Nature Protection Coalition (MNPC), dissolved in the spring of 2008. Tsetsegee Munkhbayar -- and many collaborators he works with -- was pivotal to the creation of both MNPC and UMMRL.


Behind the story of Tsetsegee Munkhbayar is a story of greed, private profit, deception, betrayal, stealth and heartbreak. Just three years after becoming a global hero, Tsetsegee Munkhbayar is today shunned by the people who lobbied to make him a Goldman Award winner, and they have even branded him and his colleagues as terrorists.

"The shooters sent a powerful message," reported EurasiaNet, the only foreign media outlet to report on the recent shooting action. "Puraam, a Chinese firm, and Centerra Gold, a Canadian-operated company, "aren't welcome in the area, one of Mongolia's only forested regions." [3] Centerra is also operating in Kyrgyzstan, a former Russian republic where paramilitary government forces repressed public protests and shot hundreds of unarmed protesters in 2010. [4]

Centerra Gold and Puraam Mining are operating on 168 hectares of land and contaminating the headwaters of the Selenge, Mongolia's largest river, and the source for Lake Baikal, the world's largest freshwater lake. The Gatsuur deposit, currently exploited by Centerra Gold, contains an estimated 1.3 million ounces of gold valued at tens of billions of dollars. Centerra's Boroo gold mine began production in 2004 and yields an average of 180,000 ounces of gold annually.

The locals see very little from the gold taken from their lands. At least 70% of the population lives in absolute poverty. Alcoholism is a national epidemic. The social fabric is unraveling. Human trafficking is a big business. Everything is for sale, or already sold.

"[People] see the 1990s privatization rush and years of harsh weather as a kind of economic one-two punch. Twenty years after Mongolia peacefully threw off 70 years of communism, one-third of Mongolia's 2.9 million people live below the poverty level of less than $2 a day; even white-collar workers like doctors and teachers can earn as little as $300 a month." [5]

The mining companies arrived in Mongolia hand-in-hand with the international NGOs -- euphemistically called 'non-government' organizations -- and they promote the western imposed ideal of 'privatization'. The unstated assumptions that came along with this are that freedom-loving westerners are uniquely qualified to teach Mongolians about democracy, human rights, good government and environmental stewardship. Tsetsegee Munkhbayar was patronized and promoted by this framework of foreign intervention.

"According to the promoters," writes Dr. Joan Roelofs, "the precondition for such benefits is a 'free market' economy, or the adoption of 'neoliberalism', which entails the privatization of most government functions, deregulation of business, abolition of subsidies and welfare, and availability of all assets (land, TV stations, national newspapers, etc.) for purchase by any corporation, regardless of nationality. Freedom also means that foreigners can start any business anywhere..." [6]

A HERO'S WELCOME

"Tsetsegee Munkhbayar spent his childhood herding yaks on the banks of the Onggi, one of Mongolia's largest rivers," wrote National Geographic in their Emerging Explorers profile. [7] "About 60,000 people and one million head of livestock depended on the powerful waterway. But in the early 1990s the essential life source began shrinking, grew contaminated, and by 2001 water that had coursed through his village for centuries had vanished -- leaving a rocky riverbed, thirsty herds, and devastated families." [8]

"The dramatic dry-up was the result of unregulated hydraulic mining that used high-pressure water systems to extract gold and other minerals," the National Geographic continues. "With more than half the nation's land granted to mining, the effects were rapid and enormous -- 1,500 rivers and creeks were cut off and 300 lakes were emptied. Desperate for drinking water, Munkhbayar's family and neighbors dug wells. But groundwater was so contaminated that dozens [sic] of local children suffered serious liver damage. Munkhbayar's son was taken ill, and his mother lost her life." [9]

As a child, Tsetsegee Munkhbayar dreamed of his hero, Chinggis Khan, the great horseman of the Mongolian steppes, and of becoming a respected herder in the long nomadic tradition of his family. After the heartbreak of seeing his native Onggi River run dry due to unregulated foreign mining, and seeing his people and their herds dying from toxic pollution related diseases, Tsetsegee Munkhbayar took action, organized people, challenged corporations and government.

"The Onggi River Movement he co-founded convinced government officials to expand and enforce mining regulations, pass new legislation, establish citizen oversight for the entire mining process, and start environmental restoration work. As a result, 35 of the 37 mining operations in the Onggi river basin stopped destructive operations, the worst offender shut down, and for the first time in years the river flows again. Munkhbayar went on to unite 11 river movements, creating the Mongolian Nature Protection Coalition, one of the nation's most influential civic and environmental organizations." [10]

It wasn't long before Tsetsegee Munkhbayar was noticed by the experts at the The Asia Foundation, a San Francisco-based 'think tank' and 'advocacy' organization that meddles, quite deeply, it turns out, in the foreign affairs of 'repressive' nations (e.g. China), little island protectorates involved in 'counter-insurgencies' (e.g. Philippines), former Soviet Republics (e.g. Kyrgyzstan) and so-called 'failed states' where the United States just happens to be prosecuting all out war (e.g. Afghanistan & Iraq).

"On Monday, April 23, 2007, Tsetsegee Munkhbayar of Mongolia, founder of a mass citizen's movement to protect Mongolia's national waterways, won a 2007 Goldman Environmental Prize -- the largest accolade in the world for grassroots environmentalists," wrote TAF's director at the time, Bill Foerderer Infante. "Often referred to as the 'Green Nobel,' the $125,000 annual award was established in 1990 by San Francisco civic leader and philanthropist Richard N. Goldman [11] and his late wife, Rhoda H. Goldman, to recognize outstanding individuals who are combating pressing environmental challenges, and was created to allow these people to continue their important work."

"The only Asian recipient of the award this year," Bill Infante continued, "Mr. Munkhbayar, 40 [at the time], was recognized for having successfully pressured 35 of 37 mining operations working in Mongolia's Onggi river basin -- a precious drinking water supply for rural Mongolians -- to permanently stop harmful, ruinous mining and exploration activities. Beginning in 2001, and with a volunteer staff of more than 2,000 people, Mr. Munkhbayar's Onggi River Movement organized multi-province roundtable discussions and launched high-profile radio and television campaigns to build public awareness."

After winning the Goldman Environmental prize in 2007, activist Tsetsegee Munkhbayar was widely celebrated by western institutions and the English-speaking press for his peaceful and collaborative achievements in uniting nomads and organizing civil society to protect Mongolia's environment. Tsetsegee Munkhbayar was not just an environmentalist, he was a national hero, standing up for ordinary people and basic human rights, a former herder turned national spokesman who rose out of the backward and repressive social milieu of communism in collapse. Tsetsegee Munkhbayar was rewarded for speaking up -- an action unheard of in Mongolian society -- in the former Soviet-run communist republic turned 'emerging democracy' of Mongolia.

HOME, HOME ON THE RANGE

I found Tsetsegee Munkhbayar and other key river movement activists from around the country at the offices of the Onggi River Movement in Mongolia's capital city, Ulaanbaatar. [12] Tsetsegee Munkhbayar is every bit a man deserving of awards.

"In Mongolia it is nonsense to speak about 'pollution' when the entire water source has disappeared," Tsetsegee Munkhbayar told me. "Because of climate differences -- it is not like the United States -- we have to completely prohibit the use of water in Mongolia."

The year 2000 saw massive livestock die-offs in Mongolia due to a regional climate condition called zhud -- meaning that water resources in Mongolia were always scarce to begin with--exacerbated by global climate instability. Hardest hit were small-scale Mongolian herders. Zhud struck again in the winter of 2010, killing some 8 million (17%) of the country's livestock.

However, zhud has now become another business in Mongolia: absent the appropriate land management policies, or the enforcement of laws, in a system rife with corruption, the effects of climate mayhem have been exacerbated by government officials with over-sized herds who capitalize on ordinary people's losses and monopolize government subsidies, capitalize on western donors' support, and dominate the best grazing land.

A landlocked nation of steppes and desert, Mongolia is known mostly for its nomadic herders and heroic former leader Chinggis Khaan. [13] With an estimated $1.3 trillion worth of untapped mineral assets, according to Eurasia Capital, a predatory Hong Kong-based investment bank, "the investment world is eagerly eyeing opportunities in Mongolia".

Capitalism arrived in Mongolia circa 1990 and the people saw more than 60 years of communist propaganda dissolve into capitalist propaganda overnight. Suddenly, everything that was bad was good, and everything that was good was bad. Now they are seeing the reality of capitalism.

The rapid expansion of rapacious profit-driven ecotourism is destroying Mongolia's culture, people and land: Mongolia is the new wild, wild west, the last frontier. Tourist camps and lodges run by 'entrepreneurs' wielding the power of private-profit have sprouted up in pristine wilderness where only herders once roamed. More and more herders are landless and herd-less.

Big mining companies have forced more and more nomads into the sprawling poverty of ger cities. [14] Communities of herders that have stood up, peacefully and unarmed, for their environmental and human rights -- clean air, clean water, clean pastures -- for more than a decade. Mining and logging have dried up or poisoned whole rivers. Increasingly aggressive responses from increasingly desperate communities have been met with paramilitary violence and illegal western-style 'legal' actions in the elite-controlled courts.

The poverty in cities takes many forms: homelessness, over-crowding, squatting, slave labor. The urban poor -- increasingly desperate and disillusioned -- have robbed Ulaanbaatar's graves of sacred artifacts that were long ago buried with the ancestors: pried open and ransacked, skulls and skeletons spill out of crumbling wood caskets.

Thousands of street children were living in Ulaanbaatar's underground sewer systems in the dead of the Mongolian winter (even in the cities temperatures plummet to minus 20 or minus 30 degrees in winter. Hundreds of people work each day picking through garbage in the city dumps; many of them live there.

Preying on the country's 2.9 million people and polluting the vastly unpopulated land, transnational corporations backed by foreign governments and the western intelligence apparatus are plundering what some call 'the Saudi Arabia of Central Asia'. The same companies are plundering Mongolia as Congo and Canada, for example, and Western mining works in league with NGOs claiming to be working for Mongolia's conservation and development and freedom.

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