2,000 Police Crush Pollution Protest In Inner Mongolia; 1 Dead, At Least 50 Arrested

(Reuters) - One person died and 50 were arrested after some 2,000 police, using rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons, put down a protest by villagers against pollution from a chemical plant in China's Inner Mongolia, an overseas human rights group said.

Inner Mongolia has seen sporadic unrest since 2011 when the vast northern region was rocked by protests after an ethnic Mongol herder was killed by a truck after taking part in demonstrations against pollution caused by a coal mine.

Ethnic Mongols, who make up less than 20 percent of Inner Mongolia's 24 million population, say their grazing lands have been ruined by mining and desertification and that the government has tried to resettle them in permanent houses. Coal rich Inner Mongolia is supposed to enjoy a high degree of self-rule, but many Mongols say the Han Chinese majority has been the main beneficiaries of economic development.

In the latest incident, villagers in Naiman Banner took to the streets to protest against a chemical processing zone they said was polluting farmland and grazing land, the New York-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Centre said in a statement late on Monday.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/07/us-china-protests-mongolia-idUSKBN0MY05R20150407