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More than 2,000 ex-soldiers riot in China: rights group
Beijing (AFP) Sept 11, 2007 About 2,000 ex-soldiers rioted last week in three Chinese cities over conditions at vocational colleges where they were re-training as railway workers, a Hong Kong-based rights group said Tuesday. About 1,000 protesting former soldiers damaged facilities at a college in Baotou city in the northern Inner Mongolia region and then clashed with police sent to quell the unrest, the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement sent to AFP. Twenty people were injured and five arrested in the incident on September 3, the statement said. Similar riots broke out at railway colleges in Baoji in the northern province of Shaanxi and in the city of Wuhan in central China's Hubei province, the rights group said, leaving some facilities vandalised. The simultaneous protests at the three colleges were coordinated by ex-soldiers who knew each other through their military service, it added. They were among 6,000 demobilised soldiers recruited by the Ministry of Railways in July to be re-trained for two years at 12 railway colleges across China, it said. However, they became unhappy over low pay, poor quality food and unreasonable demands, including a fee levied against them for charging their mobile phones, it said. A student at the college in Baotou, reached by phone by AFP on Tuesday, confirmed the reported unrest. "Some offices at the transportation teaching building and the college's main gate were vandalised," he said. "Several of the college instructors' cars were overturned," said the student, who declined to be named. He denied the rights group's assertion that some school facilities were set on fire and said the campus has returned to normal. A short report in the Inner Mongolia-based North newspaper said several statues on the campus were destroyed and some building windows smashed. College officials or local police at the three riot sites denied the report when contacted by AFP. Related Links China News from SinoDaily.com
China's vow of military openness likely to disappoint: analysts
Beijing (AFP) Sept 4, 2007China's vow to be more open about its military reflects its growing confidence, but is unlikely to satisfy foreign demands for more transparency about the world's largest army, analysts said on Tuesday. |
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