China starts Inner Mongolia trial for herder death

Wed Jun 8, 2011 8:13am GMT

BEIJING, June 8 (Reuters) - A court in China's vast northern region of Inner Mongolia began hearing a homicide case against two men accused of killing an ethnic Mongolian herder, state media said on Wednesday, an incident that set off days of rare protests.

The death of Mergen, who had been protesting against pollution caused by a nearby coal mine, sparked wider demonstrations by ethnic minority Mongolians for better protection of their rights and traditions.

Beijing, ever worried by threats to stability, is now trying to address some of the protesters' broader concerns about the damage caused by coal mining to traditional grazing lands.

State news agency Xinhua said that coal truck driver Li Lindong and co-driver Lu Xiangdong were facing charges of intentional homicide at the court in Xilinhot.

The report said that the opening day was attended by about 160 people, including relatives of Mergen, who like many of China's ethnic Mongolians goes by only one name. Repeated telephone calls to Mergen's family members did not go through.

"The Mongol herder Mergen, together with 20 others, attempted to block the path of Li Lindong's coal truck, in protest against the noise and dust created by the coal trucks day and night near his village," Xinhua said.

"According to police, the truck dragged Mergen for 145 metres and subsequently killed him," said the English-language report.

Telephone calls to the courthouse seeking comment went unanswered and there was no indication of when there might be a verdict.

A tough sentence, such as the death penalty, could be given to show the government takes seriously the concerns of the ethnic Mongolians and to help nip in the bud any further unrest.

Xinhua said local residents were "still fuming" over Mergen's death, but that his wife, Uzhina, has been satisfied with the government's response to the case.

"I hope that the court can, in accordance with the law, hand down severe punishments for the culprits," Xinhua quoted here as saying.

Ethnic Mongolians, who make up less than 20 percent of the roughly 24 million population of Inner Mongolia, have complained that their traditional grazing lands have been ruined by mining and desertification, and that the government has tried to force them to settle in permanent houses.

The authorities have since launched a month-long overhaul of the lucrative coal mining industry, vowing to clean up or close polluters to ease public anger over Mergen's death.

Inner Mongolia, which covers more than a 10th of China's land mass, is supposed to enjoy a high degree of self-rule, but Mongolians say the Han Chinese majority run the show and have been the main beneficiaries of economic development.

China's Mongolians rarely take to the streets, unlike Tibetans or Xinjiang's Uighurs, making the recent protests highly unusual. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Ken Wills and Alex Richardson, sourced Thomson Reuters)