FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 15, 2008

Contact: Timothy H. Lee

703-535-5836

Increasingly-Hostile Mongolian Government Continues to Receive American Taxpayer Dollars Despite Targeting Western Interests

ALEXANDRIA, VA – Today, a coalition of organizations that includes the Center for Individual Freedom, the Property Rights Alliance, the Institute for Liberty and Citizens Against Government Waste wrote President Bush to urge reconsideration of taxpayer-funded foreign aid to Mongolia in light of that nation’s regression in the areas of property rights and the rule of law.

Under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), impoverished foreign nations are eligible to receive American aid upon the condition that they demonstrate respect for free-market principles, property rights and the rule of law. In recent months, however, the Mongolian government has dangerously regressed in these areas. Specifically, it has begun to target Western interests through confiscatory taxation, and sought to intimidate them into relinquishing equity in their bargained-for commercial mining enterprises.

Alarmingly, these actions by the Mongolian government pave the way for Russian companies to swoop in and earn billions in profits at the expense of Western interests. Despite this aggression, the MCC recently awarded Mongolia a nearly $300 million grant, financed by American taxpayer dollars.

The deteriorating business and legal situation in Mongolia is cause for alarm, given its critical geographic location between Russia and China. In the letter, the groups said, “If we allow Mongolia’s unethical practices to continue and spread, its corrupt neighbors will stand to gain the most by filling the vacuum and forging new partnerships there.”

To be sure, the Bush Administration maintains an impressive record of supporting policies that advance development of friendly nations and uphold the democratic ideals that Americans hold so dear. It is for this reason, however, that Mongolia’s recent actions are so disquieting.

“In our efforts to advance prosperity in other nations across the globe, we must not abandon the principles and standards necessary to build politically and economically stable democracies,” wrote the groups.

The letter therefore urges President Bush to “reevaluate Mongolia’s eligibility to receive American taxpayer-funded foreign aid in light of its recent transgressions.”

Founded in 1998, the Center for Individual Freedom (www.cfif.org) is a Constitutional and free-market advocacy organization with more than 250,000 supporters and activists nationwide.