DUSHANBE, October 1, 2011, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan began its autumn draft on October 1.
We will recall that President Emomali Rahmon signed a decree on drafting young Tajiks into the country’s armed forces from October through November 2011 on September 14.
The draft affects able-bodied male citizens in the age bracket of 18 years old to 27 years old, who are not members of the armed forces reserve. The same decree provides for the retirement from active duty of soldiers and sergeants whose service under conscription is over.
According to the Ministry of Defense, every year, some 15,000-16,000 young Tajik men are drafted into the country’s armed forces. The two-month-long effort seeking to enlist young men aged 18-27 for the two-year compulsory military service takes place twice a year, in the spring and fall.
Some sources say more than 600,000 young men in Tajikistan are eligible for military service, but some 150,000 of them have received draft deferments or are exempted from the military service and some 100,000 other conscript-age young Tajiks are outside the country in search of a living.
Young Tajiks can avoid or postpone military service if they are ill, studying at university, an only son, or if they have two children.
Every spring and fall, when the draft begins, some Tajik parents send their children to Russia to avoid their being enlisted. However, authorities say conditions have improved in recent years and that parents should not be worried about the fate of their children.
In the meantime, the Association of Young Lawyers, Amparo, conducted a survey in 2009-2010 among 4,036 young people of the age of conscription. Some 35 percent of those surveyed said that they get into shanghaiing (when recruitment officers abduct young men on the street and send them into army service without informing their families) at least once. Recruitment officers usually took young men from streets, their houses or markets. There were cases when, when they took young men at night from Internet-cafes, the Amparo director Dilrabo Samadova said.
On the eve of the autumn conscription campaign, Amparo released a number of recommendations on how young men could avoid shanghaiing.
