The man who set himself ablaze in the video is a Mongolian coal mine union leader, not a Mongolian Minister - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
February 22, 2022
A video is being shared on social media claiming it as visuals of a Mongolian Minister setting himself ablaze in a press meet. This post claims that the Minister of Public Works in Mongolia had set himself on fire after he failed to keep his promise to build one lakh units of low-income houses in one year. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Mongolian Minister setting himself ablaze in a press meet after he failed to keep his promise to build one lakh units of low-income houses.
Fact: The person who set himself ablaze in the video is a Mongolian coal mine union leader, not the Mongolian Minister of Public works. Protesting the sale of Mongolia’s coal mines to China, the union leader had set himself on fire in a press meet. This incident took place in November 2015. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, a video with similar visuals is found in an article published by ‘The Daily Mail’ news website on 16 November 2015. This article reported it as visuals of a Mangolian coal mining union leader setting himself ablaze during a press meet in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
When we searched for further details of the incident, it is found out that the man who set himself ablaze in the press meet is S. Erdene, Chairman of the Board of Mongolian Solidarity Labor Union in Mongolia. The union leader had self-immolated protesting the Chinese takeover of Mongolia’s coal mining. Before setting himself ablaze, S. Erdene reportedly said, “The government no longer supports our company, families of the workers are forced to starve. This is why I will burn myself for the people of Mongolia and our children”. Erdene had reportedly suffered serious burns and was immediately taken to the hospital.
Reporting the details of the incident, several other news websites have published articles in 2015. They can be seen here and here. Lately, there were no news reports of a Mongolian Minister setting himself ablaze for failing to keep his promise on building low-income houses for the poor in the country.
To sum it up, a 2015 video of a Mongolian coal mine union leader setting himself ablaze is being shared with a false narrative.