Radio Erena: 05 December 2014
The government of Eritrea has launched a propaganda that is circling around the national service trainees in the military training camp of Sawa and members of the Eritrean Defense Forces that the endless national service is going to be reinstated back to 18 months long – to what it was when originally signed in to law.
Erena Radio sources from Eritrea indicated that the news has not been officially announced by the government although it was one of the issues raised at last week’s European countries’ conference in Rome which was attended by several foreign ministers – including Eritrea’s, as one of the main causes for emigration.
Eritrea is known in the world for producing high number of immigrants and most of those immigrants claim the endless national service as the main cause for their emigration.
Most European countries and their partners plead with the Eritrean government to engage the youth in development programs and education rather than forcefully conscripting them, noted the sources. Finland and EU are reported to have presented initiatives to support this.
The government is believed to have launched the propaganda regarding the national service because of the push by the EU and their partners.
The government of Eritrea had previously said it has plans to draft a constitution and work on reforms, though nothing have been implemented to date.
Although Eritrea is not in a state of emergency, it has forced the most producing resource of country – the youth to serve on the endless national service under the pretext of fear of attack from neighboring Ethiopia.
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