(Globe International/IFEX) – On 28 September 2006, T. Bayasgalan, reporter for the newspaper “7-Day Darkhan”, was assaulted by a market vendor while he was investigating the alleged illegal traffic in pine nuts in the central market of Darkhan-Uul province, located 200 kilometers from the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Mr B. Sandagdorj, vendor for the company Tun, forced […]
(Globe International/IFEX) – On 28 September 2006, T. Bayasgalan, reporter for the newspaper “7-Day Darkhan”, was assaulted by a market vendor while he was investigating the alleged illegal traffic in pine nuts in the central market of Darkhan-Uul province, located 200 kilometers from the capital, Ulaanbaatar.
Mr B. Sandagdorj, vendor for the company Tun, forced Bayasgalan’s hands behind his back when the journalist asked the vendor to show his documents authorizing him to sell pine nuts and requested to see the vendor’s stock of pine nuts. Sandagdorj said to the reporter, “You have no right to see these things. They are company secrets.”
While he restrained the reporter’s hands, Sandagdorj’s fellow pine nut vendors took their wares and fled in a vehicle.
According to Tun’s director, Z. Tsengel, the company does not have permission to gather and sell the nuts and Sandagdorj may have been selling the nuts on his own account.
Sandagdorj has not reappeared at the market since assaulting the reporter. Vendor Sh. Myadag, who witnessed the event, said, “At first they talked normally but when the young man asked to see the papers, Sandagdorj jumped from behind the counter and restrained his hands for almost 20 minutes. The other two men who also sold the nuts at the market took the nuts into the car and ran away with Sandagdorj.”
