Ulaanbaatar (AFP) - Mongolia must do more to tackle corruption in the wake of claims that officials stole billions of dollars worth of coal, the country's justice minister told AFP, after thousands took to the streets furious over the scandal.
As Mongolians buckle under deepening inflation caused by the pandemic and neighbouring Russia's war in Ukraine, the political class face a reckoning over allegations that a faction of politicians and executives misappropriated coal.
This month, thousands of protesters braved sub-zero temperatures in Mongolia's capital Ulaanbaatar to demand they be punished -- and that the "big fish" encouraging a culture of impunity be called out.
Following those rallies, justice minister Khishgeegiin Nyambaatar told AFP that greater steps must be taken to battle corruption that many Mongolians feel has robbed their country of the vast profits from a mining boom.
Coal is one of Mongolia's biggest earners, with state media reporting in October that the country exports an average of 1,304 trucks of the fossil fuel a day.
Privatisation of state-owned assets after the country's transition to democracy in the 1990s was a mistake, Nyambaatar admitted, as was not preventing massive disparities in the distribution of wealth.
"The majority believe that the reason behind the economic downturn and crisis is the corruption," he told AFP.
"We have to improve and increase the measures that we're taking to combat corruption, which is the issue that raises frustration among the people of Mongolia."
Ex-leader in spotlight
Nyambaatar is leading a wide-ranging government investigation into the coal theft claims, with a former president under scrutiny over his alleged role.
Ex-leader Khaltmaagiin Battulga, currently in South Korea receiving medical treatment, is one of a number of officials under "criminal investigation related to the coal theft", the justice minister said.
"If Mr Battulga makes some obstacles and hindrances to the ongoing criminal investigations, then he will be subject to arrest," Nyambaatar told AFP.
"There are a number of criminal investigations that he is currently being subjected to."
The former president has given a "personal guarantee" that he will return to Mongolia, Nyambaatar said.
A populist businessman and former champion in the Russian martial art of sambo, Battulga has not publicly commented on the allegations.
He is far from the only senior Mongolian politician linked to corruption.
NGO Transparency International said in a report this year that graft had failed to improve under this government.
Current President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa survived a parliamentary vote to sack him when he was prime minister in 2018 over links to a scandal that implicated high-level politicians in a state fund embezzlement scheme.
In the wake of this month's protests, Mongolia's government instituted a package of reforms aimed at increasing transparency in state-owned companies and cracking down on abuses of power.
Nyambaatar told AFP his probe is examining wide-ranging conflicts of interest in the tendering process and claims that coal was exported off-the-books.
It is also looking into allegations that the fossil fuel was sold at below market prices and claims of tax evasion by transportation companies.
'Fake news'
But protesters have argued the reforms -- and mass arrests of officials from state-owned mining giant Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi -- do not go far enough, decrying what they say is a culture of impunity among politicians and businesspeople.
"The government makes only political statements promising to do something but nothing has been done," opposition politician Zoljargal Jargalsaikhan told AFP.
"The government itself is the biggest guilty subject."
Nyambaatar rebuffed opposition claims that statute of limitations protections were shielding officials, blaming "fake news" on social media for spreading the idea.
He said allegations that almost $12 billion in coal had been stolen were an exaggeration, but declined to give an alternative estimate.
He also accused some in the protest movement of seeking to overthrow the government by violent means, pointing to clashes outside parliament as evidence.
"Certain actions of the protesters have exceeded the limitation of peaceful demonstrations," he said.
"The government of Mongolia is making all efforts to comply with the demands from the protesters.
"Some of the few protesters that are continuing their protests are organised.And also their demands are outside of the scope of the constitution of Mongolia."
