Source ERITREA:'You have no right to ask'Government resists scrutiny on human rights

AFR 64/003/2004
19 May 2004

Forced conscription

National military service is a key government policy of nation-building. It represents continuity of military-oriented mobilization by a predominantly EPLF government after the liberation war into the independence era(18). Post-war military conscription is also a reaction to the threat of a new war with Ethiopia and the threat from Ethiopia to Eritrea's independence and security. The Eritrean armed forces are a combination of the regular army (consisting mainly of former EPLF veterans, mostly as officers, though about half were demobilized) and a vast majority of national service conscripts.

In November 1991, the new EPLF government issued regulations to make national service compulsory for all citizens. The first intake of national service was in 1994 and it continued in staged phases since then. Under the revised national service regulations of 23 October 1995(19), national service is compulsory for all citizens aged between 18 and 40 years, male and female. It consists of six months of military training (performed at Sawa military training centre near Tessenei in western Eritrea) and 12 months of "active military service and development tasks in military forces" under Ministry of Defence authority. It extends to military reserve duties up to the age of 50. It may be continued under "mobilisation or emergency situation directives given by the government". The development tasks mainly consist of labour on construction projects, such as roads, dams, farms, clinics, schools and government or military buildings anywhere in the country, or work in the person's former civilian employment, for example as a civil servant, teacher or health worker, but under military authority. This development work is minimally paid with "pocket money", while those in the latter category receive the same payment as other conscripts, with the remainder of their salaries paid to the Ministry of Defence.

There are exemptions from national service for EPLF veterans and the disabled(20). National service is postponed for those in higher education (whose graduation certificates are not presented until they have completed national service) and people with registered medical certificates. There is no exemption for conscientious objectors. Eritreans expelled from Ethiopia during the war were given temporary exemption only. Eritrean citizens returning from abroad and those with dual nationality are not exempted.(21) In practise, national service has been extended indefinitely by administrative decision since the war with Ethiopia, when conscription was accelerated, military training was shortened, and development service was converted to active military service. Post-war demobilization plans to be funded by the international community were postponed by the government as a result of the continuation of the border dispute with Ethiopia and post-war political tensions. The army is thus expanding each year. Some observers claim the Eritrean armed forces at around a third of the able-bodied work-force.

Conscription is enforced by the regional administration through "round-ups" (known as giffa in the Tigrinya language) where police search houses, work-places and streets and detain suspected evaders to check their identity documents, and at military road blocks on main roads. Shooting has been reported of people trying to escape conscription. Young persons are required to register at the age of 17 and are usually refused exit-permits when they approach conscription age. Exit-permits are only issued on proof of completion of national service or payment of a bond as security for return to Eritrea to perform national service.

In additional measures related to the aims of national service, the government requires final year (11th grade) secondary students and all university students to do up to 2-3 months summer vacation work service (with pocket money) on development projects. In August 2001 hundreds of University of Asmara students were beaten for refusing a summer work project and made to work in harsh conditions at Wia and Galaalo military camps in eastern Eritrea, where two died from heat stroke. In August 2003, 57 school students on a summer vacation work project at Sawa army base were imprisoned in containers for possessing bibles and belonging to minority churches(22).

From 2003, an extra final year (12th grade) has been added to the school system, which all students will attend at Sawa military training centre, reportedly under military authority and including military-type training. At the end of this final boarding year of secondary education, there is competitive selection for higher education and immediate entry to national service for the rest (who are the majority). National service will include military duties as well as participation in the new "Warsai Yikealo" scheme of development work linking EPLF veterans and the new recruits ("Warsai").

In January 2004 the UNICEF representative in Eritrea criticized this militarization of education as a violation of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (which aims to promote the best interests of the child), because it separated children from their families and forced them into a military environment(23).