By Jane Macartney

BEIJING, Feb 1 (Reuter) - Chinese police have detained several people in Inner Mongolia for organising a pro-democracy group in a crackdown that provoked street protests by students, local officials said by telephone on Thursday.

The U.S.-based pressure group Human Rights in China issued a statement saying Inner Mongolia police had detained 12 people in an investigation of subversive activities in recent weeks in the provincial capital, Hohhot.

The arrests of the group of ethnic Mongolian intellectuals prompted several dozen students from Hohhot universities to demonstrate on December 16 and December 30 to protest the crackdown, one university official said by telephone.

Hada (eds: single mongolian names correct), 41, who runs a Mongolian bookshop in Hohhot, was detained for investigation by police on December 10 after a raid on his home, Human Rights in China said.

Police confiscated documents relating to his establishment of a group he called the Southern Mongolia Democracy Alliance and ordered him detained for further investigation, the human rights group said.

Also on December 10, Hohhot police raided the home of Heilong, 32, deputy chairman of Hada's alliance, and formally detained him two days later on similar charges, the group said.

Police accused members of the alliance of taking part in a counter-revolutionary, or subversive, organisation that aimed to engage in ethnically divisive activities, the group said.

Among those detained on December 13 were Tegexi, 30, a local official, Changming, 31, a history researcher, Baoqingshan, 32, a physicist and secretary of the alliance, and Chen Haishan, 29, a local official, the group said.

Taogetaobayila, 31, a college magazine editor, was detained on December 16 for joining a demonstration against the arrests together with Hasibagen, 24, a modern history researcher.

Police were holding students Xinjiletu and Gabiyatu and two other unidentified students for taking part in the December 30 demonstration, the group said.

Hada's wife, Xinna, 40, had been released on January 12 after being detained for inciting student unrest on December 16, the group said. She was allowed to return home under police supervision, it said.

Several dozen people had taken part in the December 30 protest, the university official said by telephone. Police broke up the demonstration at the gate of the Inner Mongolia Normal University, he said.

He said all students had been released into the custody of school authorities and disciplined for taking part.

``I agree with the government's action to prevent the march,'' he said. ``The illegal organisation aimed to overthrow the government and to establish a separate Mongolian nation.

They even had their own regulations.''

Chinese authorities are nervous of any independent, politically oriented organisations that could threaten the Communist Party's absolute rule and are particularly suspicious of ethnically motivated groups that could jeopardise national unity as well.

REUTER - Reut06:19 02-01-96 - Reuter N:Copyright 1996, Reuters News Service