The Government of Tajikistan has instructed to amend the resolution "On the procedure for military service as part of the mobilization conscription Reserve", adopted on June 30, 2021.
"The amount of funds for military service as part of the mobilization conscription reserve should be set at 750 indicators for calculations," says a new decree dated July 31, 2023, published on the portal of legal information of the Ministry of Justice of the country.
The amendments are instructed to enter into force from September 1, 2023.
Currently, the amount of payment for military service as part of the mobilization conscription reserve is 420 indicators for calculations. One indicator for calculations for 2023 is set at 68 somoni ($6.2).
Thus, the cost of alternative military service rises from the current 28 thousand 560 somoni to 51 thousand somoni.
According to the amendments to the law "On Universal Military Duty and Military Service" of 2021, people of military age may not serve in the army for the traditional two years, but instead undergo military service as part of the mobilization conscription reserve. The conscript, having paid the specified amount, passes monthly military training, after which he is released from compulsory military service.
Any conscript can apply, but everyone will not be able to get to the monthly gathering, provided for reservists at once.
Every year, the military commissariats of each region or district will establish a quota for a certain number of people who can undergo accelerated military service as part of the mobilization conscription reserve.
Now monthly gatherings are held during the spring and autumn conscription, but in the future the Ministry of Defense plans to conduct gatherings year-round after the construction of the necessary infrastructure.
The Ministry of Defense does not name the number of quotas allocated during military conscription, but publishes data already during the service.
Thus, according to the Ministry, since 2021, 4.150 young people have completed military service as part of the mobilization conscription reserve, paying a total amount of 113.3 million somoni.
Meanwhile, residents complain that regional commissariats always say that quotas have ended or demand a bribe to be included in the list.
"We applied to the military commissariat so that my son could do paid service, but they told us there were no quotas left, and recommended applying in the autumn draft. At the same time, we were not included in the list or queue. Let's see what they say in the fall. There are a lot of parents like me in commissariats and everyone does not know what to do. Some say that they bribed the military commissar to include quotas in the list," says a resident of Sughd region.
Dilrabo Samadova, a lawyer and head of the “Civil Liberties Office” public organization, which deals with legal issues of military personnel, says that a small number of places for such service creates conditions for corrupt elements.
"There is no available information in open resources about how people are recruited, how training are conducted, what was done with the funds received. Transparency of the budget of this service, on the contrary, will reduce the level of corruption and increase public confidence in the Ministry of Defense and the government as a whole," Samadova notes.
According to the lawyer, when this type of service was introduced, the initiative found more support than disagreement from society.
"I also supported this type of service, given that it gives a person a choice of what kind of service he should go through. I also hoped that this initiative was one step bringing our army closer to a professional army. The number of conscripts and the service life is being reduced, and the army will be professional – as many developed countries do. However, when the Government set the amount of payment for service in the reserve, it caused indignation among the population," she says.
According to Samadova, the new initiative to increase the amount of payment is not justified, because the amount for service in the reserve was already unaffordable for the majority of the population.
"Citizens of military age who work in other countries had to take out loans to fulfill their duty to the Motherland, while not stopping helping the family," she added.
Dilrabo Samadova considers it expedient to increase the number of quotas, rather than raise the cost for it, which increases the gap between social classes.
"Moreover, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Defense, there are more than 600,000 citizens of military age in the country and only 15-16 thousand of them are called up for service. Attracting a large number of conscripts without increasing the cost would be the right decision," she is sure.
