MONGOLIA'S KHENTII PROVINCE: ONE FOR THE ROAD

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SUBJECT: MONGOLIA'S KHENTII PROVINCE: ONE FOR THE ROAD

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1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Mongolia's eastern Khentii province, proud
birthplace of Chinggis Khan, is developing rapidly, with new hotels
and restaurants, plans to become a tourist destination, and a
soon-to-be-completed road linking the provincial capital,
Undurhkaan, with Ulaanbaatar. Electrification has reached all 17 of
the province's counties, and Khentii's criminal justice system has
made enormous progress in terms of infrastructure and information
technology. However, Khentii faces serious challenges, including
soaring prices, chronic unemployment, and crime rates that remain
among the nation's highest. A lack of universities limits
educational advancement, and Khentii has serious environmental
problems. Civil society is weak, and NGO development is still
embryonic. Churches report a wide degree of religious freedom. Of
Mongolia's 21 provinces, Khentii is one of only two whose Governor
belongs to the Democratic Party. Local relations between the
Democrats and the nationally dominant Mongolian People's
Revolutionary Party (MPRP) are as strained as elsewhere, but both
agree that it is unclear which party, or parties, will win Khentii's
three Parliament seats, up for grabs in the June 29 national
elections. Econ/Pol Chief visited Undurkhaan on April 14 and 15.
END SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) New homes, hotels and shops are springing up in the Khentii
provincial capital of Undurkhaan, currently a five-hour drive east
of Ulaanbaatar. The squat and sprawling home of 25,000 people and
countless packs of roaming dogs, Undurkhaan has until recent years
taken more than 20 hours to reach by car from Ulaanbaatar. But if
the construction of a new road, financed with Japanese assistance,
is completed as scheduled later this year, the trip will be cut to
three and a half hours, likely bringing about an increase in trade,
travel and other contacts between the two cities. On a April 14 and
15 visit to Undurkhaan by the Econ/Pol Chief and the Senior Pol
Assistant, local officials and residents expressed optimism over
Khentii's long-term development into a destination for domestic and
international tourists. Khentii's outspoken Governor Jargal said
the road to UB will be key. "If you want to get to Khovsgol province
(in northwestern Mongolia),you have to stay there a week. There's
no way to make a brief trip there," because of inadequate roads and
a lack of direct flight services. Khentii, Jargal said, is easily
reached from Ulaanbaatar, and its appeal as the birthplace of the
great Khan will draw large numbers of tourists, particularly
Japanese and South Koreans. (Note: Khentii is home to Blue Lake,
where Chinggis Khan was coronated, and Deluun Boldog, the alleged
site of his birth. The Governor said UNESCO is planning to declare
as a heritage site the Khentii county of Delgerkhaan, home to ruins
of an ancient city. End Note.)

PROGRESS ON KEY ROAD, ELECTRIFICATION, WATER...
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3. (SBU) The tourists might not be flooding in just yet, but
Khentii's residents have clearly benefited from a number of recent
developments, including partial completion of the UB-Undurkhaan
road, electrification of the province, and improved access to fresh
water. Khentii's political players are quick to claim the credit.
Gov. Jargal, of the Democratic Party (DP),said work on the road has
moved forward quickly during his governorship, while Jargal's
predecessor, Erdenebaatar, of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary
Party (MPRP),told us that "the MPRP initiated the road, which has
brought great economic benefits to Khentii." The Chairman of
Khentii's provincial assembly, Bayart-Od, who also serves as the
DP's second highest official in Khentii, noted that until recently,
the electricity needs of most the province's residents have been met
only partially, with small diesel power stations typically providing
power for two hours a day. In March, Bayart-Od said, the last of
Khentii's 17 counties was linked to the central provincial power
station, yielding 24/7 access to electricity. Former Gov.
Erdenebaatar said Khentii residents are now enjoying access to
high-quality fresh water delivered through pipes, rather than
relying on less-healthy containerized water. He said that in an
ambitious project started by the MPRP, underground water pipes were
laid to neighborhood water points. Erdenebaatar also said that the
proliferation of cell phones and relay points in recent years has
dramatically improved telecommunications access in Khentii.

... BUT UNEMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION PROBLEMS REMAIN

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4. (SBU) However, Khentii and its estimated 75,000 residents
continue to face a number of challenges, not least of all soaring
prices for food (septel) and fuel, as well as unemployment. "More
people in Khentii are doing better than before, but the success is
not spread evenly across the board," said Coordinator Bat-Erdene of
the USG-funded TAN project, which works with 14 Undurkhaan NGOs. He
said unemployment is a major problem, especially among educated
women. Khentii high-school graduates hoping to continue their
education have to leave the province due to the absence of any
colleges or universities. Two to three thousand Khentii residents
attend university in Ulaanbaatar, according to Gov. Jargal. Jargal
also criticized Mongolia's "vertical" education system. (Note: In
accordance with the Public Administration and Finance Law, the
salaries of schoolteachers in Khentii, as elsewhere, are paid by the
central government. End Note.) Jargal said this system puts
Khentii's education system under the control of authorities in UB,
adding, "I have no idea how the schools in my province are run."

ENVIRONMENTAL WOES
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5. (SBU) Like many other Mongolian provinces, Khentii faces
considerable environmental difficulties. Desertification plagues
some of the province's southern counties, and ongoing droughts are
destroying pastures. (Note: Nevertheless, the number of livestock
is increasing, and currently stands at 2.2 million. With more than
350 residents owning 1,000 or more head of cattle, Khentii has the
highest concentration of major herders in eastern Mongolia. End
Note.) Governor Jargal said Khentii's top development goal is to
develop its agribusiness sector, adding that this effort has
involved widespread planting of new crops of vegetables (garlic and
cabbage, among others). He said Mongolia needs to reduce its
reliance on imported Chinese food, adding that Mongolians are paying
$770 million per year for Chinese food "of suspect quality." (Note:
Drought conditions in Khentii, Selenge and Tuv provinces last year
reduced Mongolia's domestic wheat production, forcing greater
reliance on imports to meet demand. End Note.) Jargal said Khentii
authorities are also eager to harness the province's mineral
resources, including fluorspar, but that Khentii insists on
environmentally friendly mining. (Note: According to provincial
assembly Chairman Bayart-Od, most of the provincial government's
revenues come from mining. Chinese workers constitute much of the
workforce at Khentii's mines, although a few Russians also work at
mines. In Galshar County, all of the miners are Chinese. End
Note.) Gov. Jargal added that the central government has been
"giving away Khentii land for oil exploration."

HIGH CRIME RATES
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6. (SBU) Undurkhaan's chief justice, top prosecutor and senior-most
court administrator noted on April 15 that Khentii continues to
suffer from high rates of crime, including violent crime.
Prosecutor Chibat, whose 12-prosecutor staff includes seven women,
four currently on maternity leave, said three people were murdered
in Undurkhaan last year, and that the suspects' legal proceedings
are continuing. He added that Khentii's crime rate "is in the top
tier nationwide," and higher than that in the neighboring provinces
of Dornod or Sukhbaatar. Chief Justice Lkhagvadorj, Chibat and
Administrator Ochir all agreed that the province's criminal-justice
system has improved dramatically in recent years, thanks in large
part to U.S. assistance through the USAID-supported Judicial Reform
Project (JRP). JRP has resulted in the significant expansion of
Undurkhaan's courthouse; realization of computer connectivity within
the courthouse; and provision of other material support, including
reference materials for judges. Consequently, said Ochir: "People
have become more interested in working at the courthouse. The
technical support we've received has made our working conditions
better." The three officials said intimidation of judges and
prosecutors occurs, but only rarely, sometimes taking the form of
damage to vehicles or threats aimed at family members. They said
that no crimes involving foreigners were processed over the past 12
months, and that no religion-related crimes had been reported over
this period.

CIVIL SOCIETY WEAK

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7. (SBU) Bat-Erdene, the NGO coordinator, confirmed that civil
society is weak and fractured in Khentii, as in many Mongolian
provinces. "Khentii's NGOs are still in their infancy, still
fighting the Mongolian tendency to be extremely self-reliant - a
result of our nomadic heritage." Bat-Erdene, whose 14 partner NGOs
include the Boy Scouts, Women For Social Progress, Supporting
Children's Participation and a public broadcasters, said the fact
that Khentii does not have any shelters for women and children
victims of violence puts many at risk. He added that a lack of
high-quality hospitals and clinics results in higher-than-average
rates of maternal deaths during childbirth. Bat-Erdene said
Undurkhaan does not have facilities in which children can spend
their free time productively, so that many end up passing hours and
computer game centers, "where some get addicted and many spend too
much of their family's income."

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
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8. (SBU) According to two leaders of the evangelical Transformation
Church of Khentii, who spoke with us on April 15, religious
minorities in the province enjoy wide latitude in holding services
and conducting public outreach. Pastor Otgonbaatar and Dutch
missionary Hanny Key said Undurkhaan is home to four churches, and
that although individual Mongolian Christians are occasionally
pressured or threatened, often by non-Christian family members,
there had been no religion-motivated violence directed at Christians
in recent memory. Similarly, they said, Mongolian authorities did
not obstruct churches' activities, and even allowed the churches to
broadcast over the public FM radio station occasionally.

ELECTIONS: TOO CLOSE TO CALL
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9. (SBU) The 76 seats in Mongolia's Parliament will be contested on
June 29, and the three seats representing Khentii will be no
exception. Although Khentii's Governor, Jargal, is a DP member, all
three of the province's Members of Parliament (MP) are from the
MPRP. (Note: Jargal and many other DP members accuse the MPRP of
having committed election fraud in the 2004 Parliamentary elections.
MPRP officials, for their part, accuse the DP of plotting to "buy"
the upcoming elections, saying local big businessmen affiliated with
the DP might pass out gifts just before the elections. End Note.)
Local DP and MPRP reps agree that either of the two parties could
win the Parliamentary elections in Khentii, despite the fact that
one of the incumbent MPs, Khurelsukh, has been convicted of
corruption. (The conviction is under appeal.) Provincial assembly
Chairman Bayart-Od, of the DP, acknowledged that the DP has a
perception problem of sorts because some of the DP candidates who
will seek to represent Khentii are resident in Ulaanbaatar. Jargal,
also of the DP, calls the MPRP "communists" and "mobsters," and
openly accuses the MPRP of trying to spend its way to victory. "I
predict that the MPRP will again get a lot of money from the
Russians and the Chinese Communist Party," he said, adding that the
MPRP-led central government was spending large amounts of money to
buy gers (traditional Mongolian homes) to win the allegiance of
prospective voters. Former Gov. Erdenebaatar, of the MPRP, said
that although "it's hard to predict who will win, I'm an optimist,
and I think the MPRP will prevail... The people believe in us, and
the current Prime Minister (Bayar) is from the MPRP."
GOLDBECK