Authorities Close Two Mongolian-Language Web Sites for Posting "Separatist" Materials

Authorities in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region shut down two popular Mongolian-language Web sites (Ehoron, or "homeland" and Monghal, translated as "eternal fire") on September 26 for posting what officials are calling "separatist" content, according to the Southern Mongolia Human Rights Information Center. The closures came just one day after the Ministry of Information Industry and the State Council Information Office announced stringent new controls over Internet news services, and during an intensified Strike Hard Campaign against the "three evils" of separatism, international terrorism, and religious extremism throughout many of the country's autonomous regions.

Mongolian students created the Ehoron Web site in September 2004 after Chinese authorities closed another popular Mongol site, www.nutuge.com, in March 2004. The Ehoron site contained a discussion forum that covered a range of issues "without touching on human rights, politics, or religion," according to Reporters Without Borders. The Web hosting company informed forum administrators that officials had shut the site down because "separatist contents were posted on it," though company representatives did not specify which postings contained the forbidden comments.

Forum administrators believe that the alleged "separatist" content refers to posts criticizing a Chinese animated TV series that portrayed the Mongolian historical figure Genghis Khan as "Mouse King Temugin" with a mouse's head and a pig's snout. The second Web site closed by authorities, Monghal, is the official site of the Monhgal Law Firm. The firm was encouraging Mongols to ask government officials to ban the TV series, and was preparing a lawsuit against the series producer. Authorities allowed the firm to reopen its Web site on October 2 on the condition that it would not "post separatist content in the future."