The day after the riots

If you have been reading the news of Mongolia, you know about riots we had here yesterday. News about Mongolia is in many of the major news outlets. The president declared a state of emergency yesterday: there is a curfew from 10 PM to 8 AM and all public gatherings are banned. The state of emergency will last until Saturday. All television and radio stations except a single government-owned station have been temporarily shut down. Because alcohol played a large role in the rampage, all alcohol sales have been banned.

The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party's headquarters were burned. The building is still standing but the inside basically destroyed. When the fire trucks arrived the crowd refused to let them through. Eventually, the fire fighters were able to put the fire out. However, the inside of the building suffered severe damage. One person died in the fire. So far, four other people have died also.

This morning, police and soldiers were liberally distributed throughout the downtown area. Jeeps and armored cars could be seen on the streets. Today was quiet without any disturbances as far as I know.

There remains much suspicion among the Mongolians I knew about the validity of the elections. Some serious accusations about voting irregularities have been casually mentioned to me. However, no official elections results have been announced.

We personally feel quite safe. We are far enough away from downtown that we all slept well last night. Today, I went about my regular work without any trouble. This evening my family visited another American family.

Ganpurev, Bill, and I met to pray tonight. Ganpurev mentioned that we should pray for God's doctrines to spread throughout Mongolia because that is what this country needs more than anything else.