ULAN BATOR (AFP) - Many rural Mongolians seeking a better life in the city have stumbled upon the harsh reality of unemployment and poverty in Ulan Bator, which experts say fuelled deadly protests in the city on Tuesday over alleged rigged elections.

Tmujiin Bayaraa, who came to Ulan Bator from the countryside, found herself selling trash from a festering rubbish tip in Mongolia's capital to make ends meet.

Her story is common in this vast but sparsely populated nation where many decide to migrate to the city in the hope of better paid jobs.

"I had hoped that I was going to have a better life than in the countryside but when I came here, there was nothing to do," said the 37-year-old, who reared livestock before they perished in extreme weather in 2000.

Many like Bayaraa have stumbled upon the harsh reality of unemployment and poverty in Ulan Bator, which experts say fuelled deadly protests in the city on Tuesday over alleged rigged elections.

"Unemployment and the fact that the same old faces appeared to be coming back into power that hadn't done much in the past was a contributing factor to the protests," Judith Nordby, an expert on Mongolia at Leeds University, said.

Out of all the poor areas of Ulan Bator, the huge rubbish tip in the western Ikh Naran suburb where Bayaraa works is perhaps prime evidence of poverty, which affects a third of the population in Mongolia, and lack of work.

In just a few years, the numbers scavenging through the waste, earning two dollars a day, has soared from from 200 to around 600, one man said.

Most of the people working and living in flimsy tents near the pit, some of whom have eked a living there for more than 10 years, once had normal jobs, and their resentment towards the government was evident.

Dondogiin Amgalan, 52, graduated from a technical university in 1973 and worked in a state industrial company until it went bankrupt and she was laid off in 1996.

"We don't have any support from the government, and we don't have any work, so we will stay here," she said, her blackened face covered by a scarf.

Every election in Mongolia has seen parties promise to reduce poverty, but no government has ever achieved much, according to Nordby, which could explain why many protesters in Tuesday's riots were young, unemployed men.

"In some ways, the political will isn't there, but in other ways, it isn't that easy, and they just haven't got the skills and resources to do it," Nordby said, pointing to Mongolia's huge foreign debt.

Inflation in the country is also sky-high at 17 percent from January to June, according to the International Monetary Fund, with food and fuel prices rising.

However, soaring prices on world commodity markets have given Mongolia a financial boost and the economy grew by 9.9 percent last year, thanks to vast reserves of copper and gold.

Experts say unemployment usually hovers around the 6 percent mark, although the reality is far worse.

"For 13 years, we have tracked public opinion, and for 13 years, poverty and unemployment have been the top concern," said Luvsandendev Sumati, director of the Ulan Bator based Sant Maral Foundation, which conducts surveys.

"But somehow the reaction of the politicians is rather modest, and I don't see a sign of improvement in that segment of the population."

On the rubbish tip, everyone had a different opinion on the election upheaval that triggered the riots, in which five people were killed and the winning Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party headquarters were burnt down.

"For me there is some ruse, some cheating behind it," said a supporter of the rival Democratic Party who refused to be named, sitting on a chair next to her tent as dogs ran past scavenging through the trash.

Others, however, were for the MPRP, and still more were happy to stand behind any party that would help them out of poverty.

"I hope in the future they are going to do many things, but if they don't, I don't want to die doing this job," Bayaraa said.

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