VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHUM #0588/01 2150749
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 030749Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY ULAANBAATAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0184
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 5150
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 2378
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 2179
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0057

UNCLAS ULAANBAATAR 000588 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV SOCI PHUM MG
SUBJECT: Crowd of Thousands in Central Square Demands "Change" 
 
¶1.  Over the past few months, Ulaanbaatar's central Sukhbaatar 
Square has been home to dozens of demonstrations for a variety of 
causes. The target of the protesters, Government House, is 
conveniently located just north of the Square.  Demonstrators have 
demanded the resignation of the government and the investigation of 
the President and Prime Minister for corruption; insisted the 
government  sharply increase pensions and child stipends; demanded 
that Mongolians, not foreigners, profit from the country's mineral 
wealth; and implored the government to compensate savings and loan 
depositors harmed by the collapse of bankrupt institutions.  In the 
last few days, angry couples demonstrated against Speaker Nyamdorj's 
decision that will prevent them from collecting a new MNT 500,000 
(US $425 -- a tidy sum in Mongolia) marriage payment. 
 
¶2.  However, while these issues matter deeply to many Mongolians, 
the demonstrators for each respective cause numbered at most several 
hundred.  By contrast, on the evening of July 31, Sukhbaatar Square 
was filled to capacity with excited Mongolian youth.  Just after 
midnight, the crowd began to shout for "change" -- "the Winds of 
Change" that is.  Klause Meine, the lead singer of the Scorpions, 
soon complied in the encore to the band's 90-minute set.  From the 
statue of General Sukhbaatar (the hero of the 1921 independence 
revolution) to Government House to the stock exchange, the lyrics 
began to echo: 
 
"I follow the Moskva 
Down to Gorky Park 
Listening to the wind of change 
An August summer night 
Soldiers passing by 
Listening to the winds of change 
 
The world is closing in 
Did you ever think 
That we could be so close, like brothers 
The future's in the air 
I can feel it everywhere 
Blowing with the winds of change" 
 
¶3.  "Winds of Change" by Germany's Scorpions is the iconic song of 
the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.  On August 1, as part of 
Mongolia's 800th anniversary celebrations, it rang through the site 
of Mongolia's democratic revolution.  The demonstrations in 
Sukhbaatar Square began on December 10, 1989 (International Human 
Rights Day); three months later, large crowds cheered the 
resignation of the world's second oldest Communist government.  The 
Scorpions concert was one of the largest (and certainly the loudest) 
gatherings in the Square since then.  The majority of Mongolians in 
the crowd would have been in kindergarten at most in 1989; the now 
50-ish generation of hunger strikers that brought down the 
government in 1990 (several current Democratic Party MPs among them) 
are regarded by some as "old fogies" who, for the good of Mongolia's 
democratic future, have to give way to a younger generation less 
prone to bickering and personality-based factionalism.  We suspect 
few in the crowd for the concert had politics on their mind -- 
certainly not the 100 teenagers in Metallica T-shirts who formed a 
large circle in the middle of the crowd. 
 
¶4.  Mongolians are well-noted for not adhering to schedules, and the 
Scorpions concert was no different.  The concert was scheduled to 
begin at 8:00 PM, but assembly of the camera platforms was just 
beginning then, and it would be over two hours before sound checks 
were held.  The road crew for the Scorpions groaned to a questioner 
about the tremendous foul-ups that had them scrambling to get things 
ready.  At 8:00 PM, the clang of assembly at the concert site was 
matched on the north side by the construction noise of the new 
Genghis Khan memorial hall; the memorial hall was supposed to be 
finished by national day three weeks ago, but will be lucky to have 
the exterior enclosed before the snow falls in September. 
 
¶5.  In his introduction for the band, the German charge noted that 
the concert would not have been possible without the efforts of 
Minister for Industry and Trade Jargalsaikhan.  Jargalsaikhan, the 
sole MP for his party, is a sometime impresario among his business 
enterprises.  In February, shortly after coming in as minister in 
the new coalition government, Jargalsaikhan spent much of the 
British ambassador's first call on him urging that the Rolling 
Stones come to Mongolia as part of the 800th anniversary events.  We 
gather he was more successful with the Germans -- and perhaps 
chipped in to cover the expenses.  In the front of the audience in 
Sukhbaatar Square, appreciative German tourists waved their 
country's flag and joined in the shouts for "change."  And so did 
the U.S. Embassy staff -- one of whom had dug out his 1984 Scorpions 
world tour T-shirt -- scattered among the crowd.  Soon enough, Klaus 
Meine's distinctive voice sounded through the Square: 
 
"The wind of change blows straight 
Into the face of time 
Like a stormwind that will ring 
The freedom bell for peace of mind" 
 
SLUTZ