China Holds Ethnic Mongolian Historian Who Wrote “Genocide” Book

Chinese authorities in the northern region of Inner Mongolia are holding a prominent ethnic Mongolian historian who gathered testimony of a historical genocide campaign by the ruling Chinese Communist Party under house arrest pending his prosecution on charges of separatism.

Historian and author Lhamjab A. Borjigin, 74, was initially detained on July 11 under residential surveillance by police in Shiliinhot city, the regional capital of Shiliingol League in the region's northwest, a U.S.-based rights group reported.

Lhamjab, the author of a book on China's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), was informed on July 19 that the state ispreparing to prosecute him for "separatism" and "sabotaging national unity," the New York-based Southern Mongolia Human Rights & Information Center (SMHRIC) said in a statement on its website.

A native of Heshigten Banner, a county-like division in Inner Mongolia, and a member of the state-backed Shiliingol League Literary Association, Lhamjab has been a prominent voice in ethnic Mongolian culture in China, as well as documenting the region's oral history.

He specializes in survivor testimonies of the political violence and social chaos of the Cultural Revolution, publishing his book China's Cultural Revolution in 2006. ...