Death of a dissident increases fear of new protests in Inner Mongolia.

After the partly unexplained death of a Mongolian cattle herder who was run over by an oil transporter, new protests in Inner Mongolia against the ruthless exploitation of natural resources are expected. "The anxiety with which the Chinese authorities are reacting to the death of the regime critic shows how tense the situation in China's most important raw material regions is", said Ulrich Delius, Asia-expert of the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), in Göttingen on Tuesday. The family of the victim was urged not to reveal any details about the death - and internet-censorship was used to suppress a critical report. In May 2011 a similar incident had caused protests against China's ruthless exploitation of raw materials - resulting in the worst riots in Inner Mongolia since 20 years.

The Mongolian herdsman Zorigt got killed by an oil truck on Thursday last week. The authorities called this a "tragic traffic-accident" in which the Mongol is supposed to have come to death by his own negligence during a risky maneuver of overtaking. Eyewitnesses however have reported that the herder was standing on the roadside - protesting against the heavy duty transport. The victim had already campaigned for land and grazing rights of Mongolian shepherds several times before, because the animals are often killed by trucks carrying oil and other raw materials that are processed in the region.

"The official version of the incident is not credible," said Delius. Why should the truck driver have been arrested immediately, if he did not cause the accident? Doubts about the official version on what might have caused the accident are also raised in Inner Mongolia. Some Mongolians have already called for public protests against the concealment of the true circumstances of the herder's death. Mongolian human rights activists are also calling for a more effective protection of land and grazing rights and demand reduced resource-extractions in the area. The Mongols now only make up around 20 percent of the 24 Million inhabitants of the resource-rich autonomous region. Inner Mongolia does not only provide the most important deposits of "rare earths" in China, but also extensive deposits of oil, natural gas and coal - the backbone of China's industrial energy supply.