Le soldat américain Chen a été retrouvé mort (tué par balles)dans une tour de garde en Afghanistan. Depuis l'armée enquête, mais la famille n'a que très peu d'informations sur les circonstances de son décès. Un suicide ou des tirs ennemis? On sait que dans les jours qui ont précédé il a été victime d'un traitement brutal de la part de ses supérieurs, incluant des remarques à caractère racial. Déjà les asiatiques hésitaient à s'enrôler...
"Three days after his death, a military official told Ms. Chen and her husband, Yan Tao Chen, that investigators had not yet determined whether the shot to the head was self-inflicted or fired by someone else.
But the official also revealed, the Chens said, that Private Chen had been subjected to physical abuse and ethnic slurs by superiors, who one night dragged him out of bed and across the floor when he failed to turn off a water heater after showering.
Since then, the military has given little information about its investigation to the Chens, immigrants who speak no English.
And though military officials have reassured the Chens that a thorough investigation is being conducted, their grief is laced with suspicion, shared by their supporters in the local Chinese community, that they will never learn the truth.
For decades, Asian-Americans have had an uneasy relationship with the military, enlisting at lower rates than other ethnic groups.
Many Asian-American families have emphasized higher education and white-collar occupations, rather than the armed services, as a way to get ahead in America, experts say. The dearth of high-profile Asian-Americans in the upper echelons of the military may have also discouraged enlistment.
In New York’s Asian population, the reaction to Private Chen’s death has underscored this feeling, and community leaders say the case threatens to chill attitudes toward the military.
“The family deserves the truth — the honest truth,” said Melissa Chen, one of Private Chen’s aunts."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/nyregion/after-soldiers-death-a-chinatown-family-seeks-answers.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha29
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