Mongolia PM apologizes for 1930s Stalinist purges

September 12, 2000
Web posted at: 10:52 PM HKT (1452 GMT)

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia (Reuters) -- Mongolia's new prime minister has apologized on behalf of his former Communist party for not preventing Stalinist purges in which tens of thousands of people were killed during its rule in the 1930s.

Prime Minister Nambariin Enkhbayar, whose Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) ruled for seven decades under Soviet patronage, also apologized for later political oppression in an unprecedented speech to the nation of 2.4 million people.

"The saddest part of the modern history of Mongolian people is the political purges...and there is no family in Mongolia on which it did not cast its dark shadow," local media quoted him as saying at a recent memorial ceremony for purge victims.

"Today's members of the MPRP ask forgiveness for the MPRP which was weak and unable to stop the political purges and actively fight to limit them, and for violating the rights of the some citizens because of their political views...since the 1950s and 1960s."

At least 30,000 people were killed during the purges -- many of them aristocrats, intellectuals, Buddhist monks and dissidents. Thousands more lost property and jobs for their political views.

But Enkhbayar stopped short of saying the MPRP felt fully responsible for the purges, blaming instead geopolitics and the personality cult of Horloogiin Choibalsan, the "Stalin of Mongolia," who was de facto party leader at the time.

The MPRP ruled until ousted in a democratic election in 1996, but swept back to power in the next poll in July this year on a wave of disillusion with market-oriented economic reform.

Enkhbayar says the party now espouses democratic socialism and models itself on British Prime Minister Tony Blair's "New Labor" party. But some analysts say MPRP hardliners want to stall economic reforms and resume their oppressive ways.

Enkhbayar's speech came as Mongolia prepares for local elections on October 1, seen as the first test of the new government's popularity.

Opposition parties had widely criticized the MPRP for not apologizing for atrocities in the past.

"We Mongolians today should not seek profit by accusing each other and politicizing this sad past," Enkhbayar said.

"Instead, we should work together to establish such political, legal and ethical guarantees that would ensure purges will never happen again."

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