Updated
An Australian lawyer working for a subsidiary mining company of Rio Tinto has been stopped from leaving Mongolia. Thirty-two year old Sarah Armstrong, chief legal counsel to SouthGobi Resources, was detained at the airport in the capital, Ulan Baatar. It's understood she may be interviewed by Mongolian authorities today or tomorrow.
Alexandra Kirk
Source: AM | Duration: 3min 18sec
Topics: foreign-affairs, corruption, mongolia
TONY EASTLEY: An Australian lawyer working for a subsidiary mining company of Rio Tinto has been stopped from leaving Mongolia.
Thirty-two year old Sarah Armstrong, chief legal counsel to SouthGobi Resources, was detained at the airport in the capital Ulan Baatar.
It's understood she may be interviewed by Mongolian authorities today or tomorrow.
The Foreign Minister Bob Carr, who opened Australia's consulate there earlier this month, describes Australia's relations with Mongolia as "very good".
He told Alexandra Kirk Australia's new consul in Mongolia is assisting Ms Armstrong and the Government hopes the matter will be resolved quickly.
BOB CARR: Well I understand an Australian woman who works for a company in Mongolia has found that she's prevented from leaving the country. She's been, she hasn't been detained, hasn't been arrested. Her passport hasn't been taken from her.
But the authorities in Ulan Baatar are seeking to interview her further. Not, I'm advised, about any allegations against her but about a complex matter between the company she works for, the resources authority of Mongolia and the Mongolia anti-corruption authority.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: When you were in Mongolia was there any inkling that this trouble was brewing?
BOB CARR: No there wasn't. Australia has got big investment there. We're the biggest investor in mining. The largest mine in the country that is going to account ultimately for in some estimates 30 per cent of Mongolian economy is an Australian investment.
Our relationship with Mongolia is very good and I think we'll have good access in seeking to resolve this case.
Because of a unique Australian-Mongolia scholarship plan you've got a significant number of people in the government in the administration of Mongolia, who've been educated in Australia. They call themselves Maussies and they're a very active group. And that's created an atmosphere where I think we can resolve a problem like this as speedily as we could anywhere else in the world.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: It's been suggested that Sarah Armstrong is being harassed in the form of payback for corruption allegations that she made earlier regarding Mongolian officials.
Do you understand that to be the case?
BOB CARR: I don't think it's wise to canvas this early in a case like this, a consular case like this the speculation about how the set of circumstances came about.
The thing to underline is that like any Australian facing something like this, she's receiving strong consular support. And the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra has contacted the embassy in Canberra. The Mongolian ambassador has responded.
But in Ulan Baatar our consul-general David Lawson who's met with the Australian woman, I'm advised, on several occasions is ready to accompany her to any meetings she has with the authorities and has made contact with the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the case.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: Will she be questioned today?
BOB CARR: I don't want to speculate about that but, if she, is I am advised that the consul-general is available to be there with her.
TONY EASTLEY: The Foreign Minister Bob Carr speaking to Alexandra Kirk.
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