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XINHUA - Peoples Republic of China
Border PLA Have Warm Ties with Local People
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URUMQI, December 16 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese People's Liberation
Army (PLA) stationed in the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in
northwest China's Uygur Autonomous Region have formed a good
relationship with the local ethnic people.
"The PLA is our back-up. They guard our pastures and put great
efforts into disaster relief. If there was no PLA, our lives would
not be secure and our pastures would not flourish," says Kasim, a
herdsman of the Tajik ethnic group.
He remembers that in August 1999, his yurt and 30 sheep were
washed away in a flash mountain flood and the family was cut off
for two days.
It was the border PLA who rushed to the disaster area after
crossing over the mountains to deal with the flood and to bring
Kasim and 140 others back to the PLA guard station.
The PLA gave the herdsmen and their families board and lodging
for 45 days and prepared fodder for their livestock, so that the
herdsmen and their livestock survived the winter.
Yi Mingjiang, the deputy magistrate of the county said that
during the last three years, the PLA have sent 10,000 soldiers and
dispatched 122 trucks to help local people deal with emergencies.
The county is located on the Pamirs at over 4,000 meters,
covering an area of 25,000 square kilometers and bordering
Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The border is 888.5
kilometers long.
The soldiers guard the border and the pastures day and night
throughout wind and snow.
In return, the local people show great affection and
appreciation to the PLA.
In October 1999, more than 400 herdsmen, using their livestock,
voluntarily transported food and equipment to a PLA branch which
was cut off by snow and short of supplies.
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