Sanjaasürengiin Zorig was a hero of Mongolia’s democratic revolution in 1990. He led pro-

Sanjaasürengiin Zorig was a hero of Mongolia’s democratic revolution in 1990. He led pro-democracy protests in Mongolia after the fall of the Soviet Union. He is remembered for climbing onto the shoulders of friends during a pro-democracy riot and speaking passionately for peaceful and calm protests. The violence stopped. This photograph of Zorig became a symbol of nonviolence in Mongolia.

After the revolution, he was elected to the Great Khural, Mongolia’s parliament, where he worked to slow the privatization of Mongolia’s economy, worried about how to implement capitalism fairly to avoid corruption and pushing people into poverty. He was a thoughtful and popular politician and was secretly selected to become Prime Minister during a political deadlock in 1998, being the only member of the Khural that both the communist and the democratic parties respected.

He was assassinated on October 2, 1998, three days before he was scheduled to become prime minister. Mongolia’s reaction was much like America’s after the Kennedy assassination.

In recent news, three people were convicted of Zorig’s assassination and sentenced to prison in a secret trial that ended December 28th. No information is available about the trial or the defendants at this point. Activists and politicians have a lot of questions, and have requested trial records be declassified.