Ex soldiers, forced to beg, demand jobs. Beijing ignores them
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Hundreds of representatives of demobilised soldiers across the nation have headed to Beijing to protest against their local governments' failure to find them new jobs as required by a central government directive. The central governments reply has been to order police to send them home.
Qiao Yanbin , one of the representatives from Shandong province explains: “local officials sent a large number of police officers to Beijing South Railway Station. As soon as we got off the train I and three friends were sent back to our home”.
Representatives of soldiers have been streaming into Beijing to petition the central government since the National People's Congress ended last month and security measures in the capital were relaxed. The ex military servicemen protest local officials' failure to find them employment.
President Hu Jintao has been urging local governments and party units to “maximise their efforts” to find work for demobilised cadres and soldiers since 2003.
The PLA has demobilised 1.7 million soldiers in more than two decades. Between 1997 and 2000 alone, 500,000 troops were rendered redundant. The demobilisation drive is aimed at freeing up more resources to aid the nation's modernisation drive. However, no alternative form of employment has so far been found for these demobbed soldiers mainly because of the increase in national unemployment.
Hubei representative Shu Junping , 43has been in Bejing since 2004, but so far has failed to get an answer to his problem, from the government. Lately he says “I have heard of soldiers killing themselves and suffering mental problems after failing to have their voices heard”.
Shu, who served for over none years also during the Sino– Russian war, explains: “At least 100 representatives from across the nation are now living like vagabonds like me in Beijing, with many of us seeking jobs here or begging and sleeping on the streets”.
Human rights activist and founder of the 64Tianwang website, Huang Qi (who has been voicing concern about the demobilisation problem for almost nine years), adds that veterans “demobilised soldiers had been conveying their complaints in a rational way”.
Despite this, “The authorities have also avoided using violence” But I am worried that the protests will develop into irrational conflicts or spiral out of control if Beijing remains reluctant to handle the problem properly”.
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