Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on a matter of human rights in a country a long way from Australia but of deep concern still to members of the international community. I speak here of the country of Mongolia. Mongolia is a vast country of only 2.8 million people, sandwiched between the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China. It is a beacon of hope for democracy in Asia. Since democratic transformation in 1990, Mongolia has built a reputation in the West as an emerging democracy worthy of our support.

Mongolia has gone through multiple elections over the last 20 years. The visit by Prime Minister Batbold to Australia last year was a welcome occasion, noting the respect and admiration we in Australia have for the achievements of Mongolia and the Mongolian people. We cooperate in multiple areas—on minerals, energy and education—as countries that both respect open markets and both respect the rule of law. A number of Mongolian cabinet ministers have been educated in Australian universities, and we have significantly increased the Australian government scholarship program to that country.

Despite these achievements, recent developments have given rise to real concerns across the international community, and it is with genuine sadness that I now believe it is right to raise these matters in this parliament.

Members of the parliament may be aware that the former Mongolian President Enkhbayar was arrested on 13 April 2012 to face purported charges of corruption. The arrest itself has raised questions as to whether it constituted an appropriate execution of the arrest warrant. His trial was due to commence last week. It has now been delayed until 4 June. The critical point for those following this case is that the former President is now a candidate for the upcoming parliamentary elections due in late June.

Lord Peter Goldsmith, a friend of Australia, a friend of Mongolia and the former Attorney-General of the United Kingdom, is one of Mr Enkhbayar's lawyers and he, in recent discussions he has had with me on this matter, has put a particularly disturbing case. Lord Goldsmith's concern is that the current charges appear to be connected with the fact that, in late 2010, Mr Enkhbayar split from the current prime minister's Mongolian People's Party to form a new party. Lord Goldsmith has expressed concern that there is a clear political motive in the charges which have been brought against Mr Enkhbayar; that these charges are, in the main, trivial; that they are a number of years old; that they have only now resulted in legal action being taken against Mr Enkhbayar, just weeks before the election in which the former President is a candidate. The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party led by Mr Enkhbayar could indeed hold the balance of power after the scheduled parliamentary elections are held and provide a position from which Mr Enkhbayar could later contest the presidential elections.

The timeline of events is important. On 13 April, the former President was arrested live on national television as he was taken from his home, barefoot and with a bag on his head, with reports of up to 200 police involved in the arrest. Two weeks of detention followed until 27 April, when an extension of his detention was approved for up to two months. From 13 April until 7 May, the former President was denied contact with family members and did not have proper access to his legal representatives. The two-month extension of his detention beyond 27 April would have had Mr Enkhbayar in jail until the very eve of the parliamentary elections due on 28 June. I am pleased that, following international pressure, Mr Enkhbayar has since been released on bail and provided with medical assistance. However, together with others in the international community, we are concerned about the lack of information concerning the details of the allegations against him. The chairwoman of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator Feinstein, has raised her concerns in the US congress on this matter, as has the former US Ambassador to Mongolia, Mark Minton, who has stated his concern that he does not want to see a 'backslide on the progress that has been made' in Mongolia in the period since its independence.

Today, therefore, I also place my concerns on the public record—concerns not only for due process to occur in that country but also my deeper concern about the damage this case may do to the good name that Mongolia has achieved in its democratic transformation in the period since 1990. I support Amnesty International's call for Mr Enkhbayar's 'right of access to lawyers, contact with family members, adequate medical care and the right to liberty'. The time has come for due process and due political process to be restored fully in Mongolia in this most controversial of cases. I would respectfully request for the President of Mongolia to respond to these considered concerns raised by the international community on this case.

See this speech in context