China's Vietnam veterans fighting new battle

Yiyang (China) (AFP) - Marginalised and misunderstood, Chinese Vietnam veterans -- who fought in a little-celebrated war against their southern neighbours -- risk beatings and prison in a new battle with government officials.

Teng Xingqiu is one of thousands of retired Chinese soldiers staging an increasing number of protests over unpaid benefits and unnerving Communist authorities.

"The police told me they hoped I'd die in jail," said Teng, whose activism resulted in him being sentenced to three years in prison in 2009.

A thin man whose body bears scars he says result from police violence, the 56-year-old scanned the streets for surveillance cameras before choosing a run-down restaurant as a safe meeting spot.

The current tensions over Beijing's deployment of an oil rig to disputed waters are only the latest strain between the Communist neighbours.

Teng was posted to the border area during a brief but bloody war in January 1979 -- China's last major land conflict -- launched by Beijing to punish Hanoi for invading Cambodia and overthrowing the genocidal Pol Pot, a Chinese ally.

"As Chinese citizens, of course we wanted to go to the front. A lot of my army friends were killed. Many members of my platoon were shot dead," he said.

China reportedly acknowledges it lost 6,954 soldiers. Other estimates place its toll at more than 20,000, with even higher figures for Vietnamese casualties.

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Undated photo taken with a mobile phone shows former soldiers participating in a protest outside the …

No national memorial to the conflict exists, and Beijing rarely mentions it, even when denouncing Hanoi.

The war was "deadly and atrocious on the ground," according to US historian Xiaoming Zhang.

"Ordinary Vietnamese worked in secret with the army, old men and women would even shoot at us, it was really terrifying," Teng said.

Beijing declared victory and withdrew its troops less than a month after they reached an outpost near Hanoi.

Vietnam also regards it as a success, saying it repelled Chinese forces.

- Threat to social stability -

The US has produced hundreds of films and novels about its own Vietnam war, but China's experience there is rarely spoken about, and first-hand accounts are heavily censored.

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Undated photo taken with a mobile phone shows former Chinese Vietnam veteran soldier Teng Xingqiu in …

Around the same time, China began the landmark reform drive that partially replaced its state-planned economy with free markets.

Leaving the army, Teng was assigned a job in a state-run firm, but was later laid off and could only find work as a rubbish collector.

Soldiers of the time were "left behind" by change, said Neil Diamant, a professor at Dickinson College in the US who has studied veteran activism, and now many are "living hand to mouth with mounting medical expenses".

China often vows aid for its veterans -- estimated to number millions -- but rules conflict and are poorly enforced.

Teng says he makes about 1,000 yuan ($160) a month from odd jobs but thinks the government should find him a wage matching the approximately 2,800 yuan average income in his home town of Yiyang, in the central province of Hunan.

He was sentenced to more than three years in jail for "assembling to disturb order in a public place", after banding together with other former soldiers who donned army uniforms to protest outside government offices.

China sees hundreds of demonstrations involving thousands of veterans every year, according to rights groups, with more than 10,000 reportedly doing so in 11 provinces late last month.

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Former Chinese Vietnam veteran soldier Teng Xingqiu holds a photo of his military badge received for …

Such demonstrations are one of the biggest threats to social stability in the country, Xue Gangling, dean of the China University of Politics and Law, told Chinese media outlet Caixin last year.

China's President Xi Jinping has in the last year vowed to cut army personnel as part of sweeping military reforms aimed at creating an army oriented towards sea and air combat -- raising the possibility of further veteran unrest.

But authorities view any organised dissent as a risk, and crack down harshly.

Significantly, any suggestion of disloyalty in the military -- a pillar of Communist control -- is anathema to China's rulers, who constantly stress the need for the People's Liberation Army to follow Party orders.

Censors block news of military-linked protests, Chinese reporters told AFP.

"Army topics are sensitive and people sense danger so it's particularly hard for veterans to mobilise outside support," said Diamant. "Orphans can do it, environmentalists can do it, but not veterans."

- 'We'll beat you to death' -

Teng has repeatedly tried appealing to central authorities in Beijing, but local officials detained him in illegal "black jails", a common fate for protesters.

He suffered daily beatings during his prison term, he says, and guards forced him to eat food scraps off his cell floor.

"They said, if you don't admit guilt, we'll beat you to death," he told AFP.

Now his communications are monitored and police -- who installed a surveillance camera outside his home -- detained him for 24 hours after he was contacted by AFP, warning him not to speak to the media.

Yiyang officials refused to comment on Teng's case when contacted by AFP.

Wang Guolong, a fellow protester who spent 14 years in the army, said: "They arrested Teng as a warning to stop us uniting, but our situation is the same... There are millions of veterans like us across the country."

The ex-soldiers infuse their rhetoric with nationalism, with one group in neighbouring Hubei province singing a "battle hymn" pledging to "smash US imperialism" at a recent protest.

Teng is still a staunch supporter of Beijing's assertive foreign policy, and uses the name "South Sea Warrior" online.

"Defending your rights is more dangerous than fighting a war," he said. "You can be arrested at any time."

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Five Americans troops were killed in an apparent coalition airstrike in southern Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday, in one of the worst friendly fire incidents involving United States and coalition troops since the start of the nearly 14 year war.

The U.S.-led international coalition said the service members were killed in an apparent friendly fire incident, which an Afghan official said was an airstrike in southern Zabul province. A statement said all five soldiers died on Monday but did not give further details on the attack.

"Five American troops were killed yesterday during a security operation in southern Afghanistan. Investigators are looking into the likelihood that friendly fire was the cause. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of these fallen," Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said.

If confirmed, it would be one of the most serious cases involving coalition-on-coalition friendly fire during the war.

"The casualties occurred during a security operation when their unit came into contact with enemy forces. Tragically, there is the possibility that fratricide may have been involved. The incident is under investigation," the coalition said in an earlier announcement.

One of the worst such incidents came in April 2002 when four Canadian soldiers were killed by an American F-16 jet fighter which dropped a bomb on a group of troops during night firing exercise in southern Kandahar.

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An Afghan policeman stands near a destroyed NATO supply truck in Behsud district of Jalalabad east o …

A senior police official in southern Zabul said the coalition soldiers were killed when they called for close air support.

Provincial police chief Gen. Ghulam Sakhi Rooghlawanay said there was a joint operation by Afghan and NATO troops in the area's Arghandab district early Monday. After that operation was over, the troops came under attack from the Taliban and called in air support, he said.

"After the operation was over on the way back, the joint forces came under the attack of insurgents, and then foreign forces called for air support. Unfortunately five NATO soldiers and one Afghan army officer were killed mistakenly by NATO air strike," Rooghlawanay said.

There was no way to independently confirm Rooghlawanay's comments. The coalition would not comment and NATO headquarters in Brussels also declined to comment.

The only U.S. troops now involved in combat operations are usually Special Operations Forces that mentor their Afghan counterparts. They often come under fire and are responsible for calling in air support when needed. Because of constraints placed by outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai, such air strikes are usually called "in extremis," or when troops fear they are about to be killed.

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Afghan security personal surround the area after Taliban fighters stormed a government building in J …

Karzai blamed a similar airstrike called in by special forces mentoring an Afghan operation for killing a dozen civilians during an operation in northern Parwan province. The U.S. military vehemently denied the charge, saying that two civilians were killed in crossfire with Taliban militants and that airstrike was called in when forces thought they were about to be killed by insurgents.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack against the joint force in Zabul.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said a battle took place on Monday night between foreign troops and Taliban fighters in the Arghandab district. Ahmadi claimed a "huge number" of NATO soldiers were killed or wounded in the fighting. The Taliban often exaggerate their claims.

Separately, a NATO statement said a service member died Monday as a result of a non-battle injury in eastern Afghanistan.

The deaths bring to 36 the number of NATO soldiers killed so far this year in Afghanistan, with eight service members killed in June.

The insurgents have intensified attacks on Afghan and foreign forces ahead of the country's presidential election runoff Saturday. Officials are concerned there could be more violence around the time of the vote, although the first round in April passed relatively peacefully.

Casualties have been falling in the U.S.-led military coalition as its forces pull back to allow the Afghan army and police to fight the Taliban insurgency. All combat troops are scheduled to be withdrawn from the country by the end of this year.

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LAS VEGAS (AP) -- The married couple who police say killed three people in Las Vegas, including two officers, had been kicked off a ranch where anti-government protesters faced down federal agents earlier this year, rancher Cliven Bundy's son said Monday.

Ammon Bundy told The Associated Press that Jerad and Amanda Miller were asked to leave his father's ranch after being there for a few days this spring.

He said that while details were still sketchy, the Millers' conduct was the problem. He called the couple "very radical" and said they did not "align themselves" with the protest's main issues.

"Not very many people were asked to leave," he said. "I think they may have been the only ones."

Police said earlier Monday that they were looking into whether the Millers were at the Nevada ranch during the standoff.

Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the two suspects had ideology that was along the lines of "militia and white supremacists" and that law enforcement was the "oppressor."

Police believe the shootings were an isolated act and officers were still looking for a motive, McMahill said.

The two officers were having lunch Sunday at a pizza buffet in a strip mall when the Millers fatally shot them at point-blank range.

The attack at a CiCi's Pizza killed officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, who were both husbands and fathers. Jerad Miller yelled, "This is a revolution!" McMahill said.

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Las Vegas Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill, center, speaks during a news conference, Monday, June 9, …

Both suspects fired multiple shots into Beck. They then placed a note, a yellow flag that said "Don't tread on me," and a swastika on the officers' bodies, McMahill said at a news conference.

The deadly rampage in the aging shopping center about 5 miles northeast of the Las Vegas Strip unfolded in a matter of minutes.

The suspects then fled on foot to a nearby Wal-Mart, where Jerad Miller fired a single shot upon entering, police said. A patron at the store who carried a firearm confronted Jerad Miller, not realizing that he was accompanied by Amanda Miller, who shot and killed the man, police said. He was identified as 31-year-old Joseph Wilcox of Las Vegas.

"Joseph died trying to protect others," Sheriff Doug Gillespie said.

As terrified customers fled the store, the Millers went to the rear and hunkered down for a firefight with police, McMahill said. Though they exchanged gunfire, ultimately, Amanda Miller shot and killed her husband, and then shot herself, police said.

Police were called at 11:22 a.m. to the pizzeria. Shots were reported five minutes later at the Wal-Mart.

Bundy and his supporters, some of them armed militia members, thwarted a Bureau of Land Management roundup of his cattle near Bunkerville in April. The BLM says Bundy owes more than $1 million in grazing fees and penalties for trespassing without a permit over 20 years, but he refuses to acknowledge federal authority on public lands.

Ammon Bundy said his family "has had no quarrel" with Las Vegas police and disavowed the Millers' actions.

"The only thing worse than tyranny is anarchy, and we certainly recognize that," Bundy said.

The Millers moved to the Las Vegas area in January, police said. Amanda Miller had worked at a Hobby Lobby craft store in Las Vegas, the chain store said in a written statement, but was no longer employed there.

Jerad Miller, 31, was convicted of felony vehicle theft in Washington state, police said. He also had a criminal record in Indiana.

Miller and his 22-year-old wife were married in August 2012, according to a marriage license on file in Indiana.

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Associated Press writer Justin Pritchard in Los Angeles and AP researcher Judith Ausuebel in New York contributed to this report.

New Catholic Church Child Abuse Vaccine Revelation: Thousands of Irish Orphans Were Used as ‘Drug Guinea Pigs’

Orphans at Sean Ross Abbey were used as ‘guinea pigs’ in vaccine trials by Borroughs Wellcome..

Stephen: This story follows the shocking revelation, just days ago, that the bodies of 796 children – orphans under the care of the Catholic Church at Sean Ross Abbey – were found in a mass grave.

From RT.com – June 9, 2014 – http://tinyurl.com/neoylal

Over 2,000 care-home kids were secretly vaccinated against diphtheria in the 1930s in medical trials undertaken by international drugs giant Burroughs Wellcome, Irish media reveal. Among the testing sites was a recently discovered mass grave.

The medical records cited by the Irish Daily Mail show that some 2,051 children and babies across several Irish care homes may have been subjected to the practice.

Michael Dwyer, of Cork University’s School of History, found the data after foraging through tens of thousands of archive files and old medical journals. What he did not find is whether any consent was gained for these alleged illegal drug trials or any records of the effects on the infants involved.

The orphanage, Sean Ross Abbey,

Dwyer discovered that the tests were carried out shortly before the drugs were made readily available in the UK. The homes involved included Bessborough, County Cork, and Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, County Tipperary.

“What I have found is just the tip of a very large and submerged iceberg,” Dwyer told the paper. “The fact that reports of these trials were published in the most prestigious medical journals suggests that this type of human experimentation was largely accepted by medical practitioners and facilitated by authorities in charge of children’s residential institutions.”

The Newstalk Breakfast on Monday show also found out that nearly 300 children living in care homes in the 1960s and 70s were used as guinea pigs in medical trials. Ireland had no laws pertaining to medical testing until 1987.

The show talked with a former child resident of Bessborough House in Cork who went by the name of Christy.

“I remember speaking to my mum and I asked her why I’d do many marks on my body, she said ‘I don’t know’ and said ‘when you arrived your arms were sore and bandaged.”

He had eight vaccine marks, on his arms and two on his legs.

“Most people from my generation have one, if not two, that’s it, not as many as me,” Christy stated.

The reports come on top of a shocking revelation in Tuan, western Ireland, where a mass grave for almost 800 children was unearthed just a few days ago. Most of the bodies from the facility for unwed mothers and their children were dumped in a sewage tank without coffins.

The unmarked grave was stumbled upon by a local historian, Catherine Corless, who was gathering information on the mother-and-baby home which functioned there in the first half of the 20th century, run by the Bon Secours order of nuns.

Following the discovery and reports of medical tests, Irish Premier Enda Kenny ordered ministers to search for further mass baby graves.

The archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has called for an investigation in Tuan independent of the Catholic Church since “mother and baby homes” mostly operated in Ireland from the 1920s to 1960s, when Catholic policy and control of social services reached their zenith.

“We have to look at the whole culture of mother and baby homes; they’re talking about medical experiments there,” he told RTE Radio at the weekend.

“They’re very complicated and very sensitive issues, but the only way we will come out of this particular period of our history is when the truth comes out.”

Sign the petition to “The World’s Leaders: Tell Us the Truth in 2014″ today at:https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/the-world-s-leaders-tell-us-the-truth-in-2014. –and keep sharing it everywhere! Facebook, Google+,Twitter, email, blogs etc.