By Irja Halasz

ULAN BATOR, Feb. 28 (1996) (Reuters) - Human rights activists in Mongolia called on Beijing on Wednesday to free ethnic minority dissidents detained in Inner Mongolia and other regions of China for opposing Chinese communist rule.

The Union of Human Rights in Inner Mongolia, the Inner Mongolia Revival Movement and Inner Mongolian Youth Centre said in a published appeal that global pressure was needed.

``We call for help and support for the peoples of Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang who are fighting for freedom and independence,'' said the appeal seen in the Il Tovchuu newspaper.

It demanded that China free ``thousands of innocent Tibetans, Uighurs, Kazakhs and other non-Chinese'' from detention and halt ``policies against the people of Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang to eliminate them by Sinicising them by force.''

``We call on the international community to put political and economic pressure on China's government to immediately release Ulanshuvu, Hada and hundreds of other Inner Mongolians fighting for human rights who been arrested by the Chinese.''

Ulanshuvu, a history professor arrested in 1991, and Hada, a bookseller and founder of the Southern Mongolian Democracy Alliance detained in December, are among scores held in the Inner Mongolian capital of Hohhot, the activists said.

``China's government and Communist Party started brutal activities against Inner Mongolians in December 1995,'' Altanbat, an activist based in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator, said in an interview.

On several dates in December, Chinese security officials ``by force dispersed the peaceful gatherings and courageous protests of teachers, students and intellectuals,'' he said.

Some 30 students and teachers of the Inner Mongolian Teachers University and Mongolian Language College, both in Hohhot, were rounded up after they protested the December 10 arrest of Hada and fellow activist Heilong, he said.

Some of the students raised pictures of 12th century Mongol ruler Genghis Khan and sang Mongolian nationalist songs during the protests, he told Reuters.

Members of Hada's alliance were accused by Chinese police of taking part in a subversive organization that aimed to engage in ethnically divisive activities, the U.S.-based pressure group Human Rights in China said on February 1.

Chinese authorities are extremely nervous of any independent political organizations that could threaten the Communist Party's absolute rule and are particularly suspicious of ethnic groups that could jeopardize national unity.

The communist regime, founded in 1949, inherited the borders of the ancient Chinese empire, which contained dozens of non-Chinese ethnic groups.

Despite its anti-colonialist rhetoric, Beijing has steadfastly suppressed calls for independence by any ethnic minority regions. Inner Mongolia, Tibet and largely Moslem Xinjiang ostensibly enjoy autonomy but in reality are tightly controlled by ethnic Han Chinese sent from Beijing.

Beijing has buttressed its rule in minority areas by resettling millions of Han from crowded parts of China.

Mongolia, which has a pact with China in which the neighbours agreed not to interfere in each other's domestic affairs, was unlikely to support the appeal, the activist said.

04:03 02-28-96

By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING, Oct 2 (Reuter) - The Communist Party boss in China's Inner Mongolia region has issued a warning to regions plagued by ethnic strife to be alert against attempts by what he said were hostile Western forces aimed at splitting China.

Some hostile Western forces have been engaged in splitting China under the pretext of human rights and ethnic and religious issues, the official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday, quoting Liu Mingzu, the party chief of Inner Mongolia. He did not identify the hostile forces.

``We must have high political awareness of this,'' Liu said in an article published in the hardline magazine ``Seeking Truth.''

Officials ``must pay attention to politics, which means they must safeguard the unity of all peoples and safeguard the unification of the motherland,'' he said.

Inner Mongolia is populated mainly by ethnic Mongolians and has shown little sign of anti-Chinese unrest since the early years after the 1949 communist takeover and the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, when dissent was crushed.

However, late last year, authorities in Inner Mongolia arrested a group of about 12 people who had demanded more democracy as well as a separate autonomous region.

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

Liu said officials in restive regions should follow the example of heroes and paragons publicised by the state media and ``share weal and woe'' with the people.

Local officials must develop their economies but still submit to the control of the central government, he said.

They must spare no effort to boost their local economies, the basis for consolidating national defence, stabilising China's borders and safeguarding the unification of the motherland, Liu said.

``Ethnic unity is an important condition for political stability, and political stability in turn is a reliable guarantee for economic development,'' Liu said.

``Under any circumstances, the officials must safeguard the absolute authority of the Communist Party Central Committee and support the overall control of the central government over economic development,'' he said.

Liu said officials in regions plagued by ethnic strife must endeavour to narrow the widening gap between booming coastal provinces in the east and impoverished regions in the western interior, but should not abandon socialist ideology and culture.

Inner Mongolia has traditionally been less restive than the Himalayan region of Tibet and the northwestern Xinjiang region.

China has been accused of widespread human rights abuses since its troops entered Tibet in 1950. Beijing denies the charges and says Tibet has been a part of China for centuries, a claim disputed by many Tibetans.

Xinjiang, a largely Moslem region bordering Afghanistan, Pakistan and three mainly Moslem Central Asian states, has a long history of ethnic unrest and has been hit by sporadic pro-independence bombings and assassination attempts in recent months.

China ordered tighter border controls in May to prevent the smuggling of weapons and subversive materials from neighbouring Moslem states, and cracked down on campuses in the region.

01:36 10-02-96