MOZAMBIQUE: Opposition against return to compulsory army recruitment

The proclamation announcing Mozambique return to compulsory military conscription is pasted on the wall of the sole administrative building in Ilha Josina Machel, an impoverished and decaying town some 100 km from the capital Maputo. Next to the proclamation is the text of the controversial law, passed in 1997 and identical to the colonial Portuguese legislation on military service. It makes every Mozambican between the ages of 18 and 35 potentially subject to compulsory conscription for a period of two years as the government seeks to expand the size of the army from its current strength of 4,000-5,000 to between 12,000-15,000. It also allows for the minimum age of conscription to be lowered in time of war. It is a deeply unpopular law in a country attempting to recover from 30 years of civil conflict. In apparent rejection of enforced military service, last year despite legal penalties, only 35,000 people signed up in a government registration drive out of an expected 750,000. What is legal is not always justice, a resident of Ilha Josina Machel told IRIN. In theory he is not opposed to the building of a credible armed forces. But he has a particular loathing of the prospect of his son being called up. Like so many other parents during Mozambiques brutal civil war, his son was kidnapped at the age of 13 by Renamo rebels and forced to fight, and for five years he did not know if he was dead or alive. I am ready to go to jail, but I will not leave my son alone for a second time,he said. Child soldiers were a particular feature of the Mozambican conflict, which ended in 1992 with a peace agreement and elections won by the Frelimo government two years later. They were terrorised and indoctrinated into committing some of the worst atrocities of a brutal conflict. Their possible recruitment for military service under the new law would mean that for the second time they are victims of injustice, the concerned father said. The local NGO Reconstruindo a Esperanca (Rebuilding Hope) is leading a campaign to exclude all former child combatants, including those who served in government militia or traditionally-based self-defence forces, on the grounds that they are all still battling to overcome the trauma of their experiences. An estimated 25,000 children were in Renamo ranks alone. A government official told IRIN that only 1,000 youths would be called up this year. He added they would be selected on a case-by-case basis. He, however, also acknowledged popular rejection of military service, which was why the government reintroduced conscription, he said. People associate the army with war. But we have an obligation to protect out borders, the official added. Our country is in no position to supports a voluntary army. For that you must give someone incentives, and we cannot afford to do that. See related IRIN-SA report: MOZAMBIQUE: Healing the trauma of war