Crowd of Thousands in Central Square Demands "Change"

UNCLAS ULAANBAATAR 000588

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV SOCI PHUM MG
SUBJECT: Crowd of Thousands in Central Square Demands "Change"


1. Over the past few months, Ulaanbaatar's central Sukhbaatar
Square has been home to dozens of demonstrations for a variety of
causes. The target of the protesters, Government House, is
conveniently located just north of the Square. Demonstrators have
demanded the resignation of the government and the investigation of
the President and Prime Minister for corruption; insisted the
government sharply increase pensions and child stipends; demanded
that Mongolians, not foreigners, profit from the country's mineral
wealth; and implored the government to compensate savings and loan
depositors harmed by the collapse of bankrupt institutions. In the
last few days, angry couples demonstrated against Speaker Nyamdorj's
decision that will prevent them from collecting a new MNT 500,000
(US $425 -- a tidy sum in Mongolia) marriage payment.


2. However, while these issues matter deeply to many Mongolians,
the demonstrators for each respective cause numbered at most several
hundred. By contrast, on the evening of July 31, Sukhbaatar Square
was filled to capacity with excited Mongolian youth. Just after
midnight, the crowd began to shout for "change" -- "the Winds of
Change" that is. Klause Meine, the lead singer of the Scorpions,
soon complied in the encore to the band's 90-minute set. From the
statue of General Sukhbaatar (the hero of the 1921 independence
revolution) to Government House to the stock exchange, the lyrics
began to echo:

"I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
An August summer night
Soldiers passing by
Listening to the winds of change

The world is closing in
Did you ever think
That we could be so close, like brothers
The future's in the air
I can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the winds of change"


3. "Winds of Change" by Germany's Scorpions is the iconic song of
the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. On August 1, as part of
Mongolia's 800th anniversary celebrations, it rang through the site
of Mongolia's democratic revolution. The demonstrations in
Sukhbaatar Square began on December 10, 1989 (International Human
Rights Day); three months later, large crowds cheered the
resignation of the world's second oldest Communist government. The
Scorpions concert was one of the largest (and certainly the loudest)
gatherings in the Square since then. The majority of Mongolians in
the crowd would have been in kindergarten at most in 1989; the now
50-ish generation of hunger strikers that brought down the
government in 1990 (several current Democratic Party MPs among them)
are regarded by some as "old fogies" who, for the good of Mongolia's
democratic future, have to give way to a younger generation less
prone to bickering and personality-based factionalism. We suspect
few in the crowd for the concert had politics on their mind --
certainly not the 100 teenagers in Metallica T-shirts who formed a
large circle in the middle of the crowd.


4. Mongolians are well-noted for not adhering to schedules, and the
Scorpions concert was no different. The concert was scheduled to
begin at 8:00 PM, but assembly of the camera platforms was just
beginning then, and it would be over two hours before sound checks
were held. The road crew for the Scorpions groaned to a questioner
about the tremendous foul-ups that had them scrambling to get things
ready. At 8:00 PM, the clang of assembly at the concert site was
matched on the north side by the construction noise of the new
Genghis Khan memorial hall; the memorial hall was supposed to be
finished by national day three weeks ago, but will be lucky to have
the exterior enclosed before the snow falls in September.


5. In his introduction for the band, the German charge noted that
the concert would not have been possible without the efforts of
Minister for Industry and Trade Jargalsaikhan. Jargalsaikhan, the
sole MP for his party, is a sometime impresario among his business
enterprises. In February, shortly after coming in as minister in
the new coalition government, Jargalsaikhan spent much of the
British ambassador's first call on him urging that the Rolling
Stones come to Mongolia as part of the 800th anniversary events. We
gather he was more successful with the Germans -- and perhaps
chipped in to cover the expenses. In the front of the audience in
Sukhbaatar Square, appreciative German tourists waved their
country's flag and joined in the shouts for "change." And so did
the U.S. Embassy staff -- one of whom had dug out his 1984 Scorpions
world tour T-shirt -- scattered among the crowd. Soon enough, Klaus
Meine's distinctive voice sounded through the Square:

"The wind of change blows straight
Into the face of time
Like a stormwind that will ring
The freedom bell for peace of mind"

SLUTZ