Visiting the drill ground for "Peace Mission 2007"

Visiting the drill ground for "Peace Mission 2007"
www.chinanews.cn 2007-08-03 09:20:46







Chinanews, Chelyabinsk, Aug 3 – Anyone who visits Chelyabinsk now might feel puzzled when they see that a village has appeared overnight on an empty land that stretches to the end of the horizon. Actually, this is not a village but the drill ground for the "Peace Mission 2007" military drill to be jointly conducted by Chinese and Russian soldiers. It had taken two months to build the drill ground.

In a few days, the joint military drill will be conducted here. In the military drill, 250 Russian soldiers will act as terrorists who will kidnap 200 civilians, acted also by Russian soldiers, as hostages. Chinese soldiers and soldiers from the other five member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will launch attacks to rescue the hostages.

Accompanied by a Russian military spokesman, this reporter traveled a dozen miles to arrive at the drill ground on Wednesday.

This reporter saw that a two-tier reviewing stand had been built on the ground. Workers were giving finishing touches to the stand. Some tents, of different sizes, were placed in a line behind the reviewing stand at the left side, where messages about the drill would be announced. When the drill takes place, about fifty computers and Internet access service will be provided at the reviewing stand and reporters can send the manuscripts to keep people back home posted on the latest developments of the drill, said the Russian military spokesman.

He pointed at an unfinished tent and told this reporter that it would be used for holding a press briefing when the drill ended. By then, defense ministers from the six member countries of the SCO would answer questions raised by reporters.

Before the drill formally begins, soldiers from the six countries will conduct joint exercises three times. When the drill is wrapped up, the drill ground will be used as the training ground for Russian soldiers to practice anti-terrorist exercises.

This reporter also visited the camping sites and accommodation places for the soldiers of the six countries. At the camping site for Chinese soldiers, this reporter saw that every tent was labeled with Chinese characters telling people what the tent was used for. This reporter noticed there were some field hospitals set up on the drilling ground, whose doctors, when necessary, could do minor surgeries in the tents. In the dining tent, this reporter saw that bread and juice were already placed on the table.