CO UPDATE

Editorial

First of all a Happy New Year to all of you - knowing that for some this is not yet a new year, as calendars differ, and so does the beginning of a new year.

With the upcoming World Social Forum in Nairobi (see events below), the focus of this issue of co-update is on Africa. The situation in Eritrea has been highlighted in this newsletter before, and again we need to bring attention to an appalling situation. The escalation of the nearby violent conflict in Somalia has also implications for recruitment, not only of children.

However, we close this issue with the good news of the abolition of conscription in Morocco.

Andreas Speck

Upcoming events

World Social Forum Kenya

Nairobi, 20-25 January 2007

War Resisters' International will be present at the World Social Forum in Nairobi with a range of seminars and workshops. More information is available on wri-info. Watch out for updates and meet us in Nairobi.

Witnessing Conscientious Objection from Turkey to the World: History and Breaking News.

Istanbul, 27-28 January 2007

A conference of academics, legal experts, and activists will take place at Istanbul Bilgi University in January, to support the right to conscientious objection in Turkey. The conference is organised by a conference committee, with support of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International Turkey, War Resisters' International and the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection. For more information, contact Ozgur Heval Cinar.

CO-Update

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Eritrea: Hundreds of parents of conscripts arrested

Amnesty International reported in December that "the Eritrean government has arrested over 500 relatives, mostly parents, of young men and women who have either deserted the army or avoided conscription". According to Amnesty International, "the arrests have taken place in the region of Asmara, the capital city, in a sweep that started on 6 December. None of those arrested has been charged with a criminal offence or taken to court within the 48 hours stipulated by the Constitution and laws of Eritrea. The authorities have stated that the detainees must either produce the missing conscripts or pay a fine of 50,000 nafka (approximately US$1,200). Relatives who fail to do so will be forced to serve six months in the army in place of their missing family member."

This is not the first time the Eritrean authorities arrest parents and relatives of conscripts who deserted. In July 2005, Amnesty International reported a similar incident: the arrest of several hundred relatives of people who have evaded or deserted from the military in the Debug region of southern Eritrea since 15 July 2005.

Amnesty reported: "Those arrested were the fathers, mothers or other relatives of men or women over the age of 18 who have either failed to report for national service since 1994, failed to attend the compulsory final school year at Sawa military training camp, abandoned their army unit, or left the country illegally. The relatives have been accused of facilitating their evasion of conscription or flight abroad. Officials reportedly offered them release on bail of between 10,000 and 50,000 nakfa (US$660 to US$3,300), if they guaranteed that they would produce their missing relative."

Those arrested are held incommunicado in different prisons. "Many held in Adi Keih town prison reportedly began a hunger strike in protest at their detention and have been moved to Mai Serwa military camp near the capital Asmara", Amnesty reported.

Thousands of young men and women have fled Eritrea and sought asylum in Sudan and other countries since Eritrea's war with Ethiopia between 1998 and 2000, in an effort to avoid conscription or after deserting the army. National service, compulsory for all men and women aged between 18 and 40, has been extended indefinitely from the original 18 month term instituted in 1994. It consists of military service and labour on army-related construction projects.

All high school students, female and male, are forced to finish their 12th year of study in a school within the military camp of Sawa. None of them have returned for further eduation at university once they completed national service. The University of Asmara, Eritrea's only university, has only third and fourth year students who had entered before the draft came into effect.

The government has militarised the country completely. Forced recruitment of young people, underage children and adults under 50 is a daily event. Recruits are treated brutally and there is evidence of sexual abuse of women. Nobody has a right to question the miliary authorities. Nobody has a right to conscientious objection.

Sources: Amnesty International: Eritrea: Over 500 parents of conscripts arrested, AI Index AFR 64/015/2006, 21 December 2006, Amnesty International: Urgent Action, AFR 64/011/2005, 28 July 2005, Yohannes Kidane: Conscientious objection in Eritrea, The Broken Rifle No 68, November 2005

Somalia and Ethiopia: forced recruitment and conscription for war

According to various NGOs and United Nations agencies, the use of child soldiers in Somalia has increased since fighting between the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) escalated in December. The fighting culminated with the TFG, backed by Ethiopian troops, forcing the UIC from territories in southern Somalia, and the capital, Mogadishu.

"First hand interviews have been conducted with children as young as 11-years-old at checkpoints, and in the vehicles of various parties to the conflict," said Siddharth Chatterjee, the senior programme officer with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Somalia.

The recruitment drive has spread to neighbouring Kenya. Chatterjee added that according to the Northeastern Provincial Commissioner in Kenya, the recruitment of youth from the province by rival armed groups preparing to fight in Somalia began in the last three months of 2006 - most significantly by the UIC.

"An appeal has been made to all parties in the conflict to refrain from recruiting child soldiers and release those already recruited," Chatterjee said. "In Somalia though, an absence of birth registration adds to the degree in difficulty to accurately verify children under 18."

He continued: "There are also reports that the UIC has declared publicly its intention to recruit from schools, and this is most worrying if true."

Ethiopia too ran a conscription campaign before the escalation of the conflict in early December 2006. According to reports from early December 2006, Ethiopian forces stationed in many parts of Ethiopian province Ogaden are reported to have started conscripting civilians into the army and its affiliated militias. The campaign to conscript civilians into the army came after a failed attempt to get civilians voluntarily for the Ethiopian federal military. The failed plan was meant to enlist, for the army, up to one hundred civilian members from each district throughout Ogaden. The conscription campaign is rumored to have the same target and objective.

Ogaden online reporters in Ogaden indicate that the Ogaden civilian population has already expressed its opposition to any conscription. Opposition to the conscription of Ogaden civilians into the army was expressed in many forms to the Ethiopian military leaders who are leading this campaign.

These military leaders were reminded that Ogaden civilians who volunteered for the Ethio-Eriteria war were not given proper care by the Ethiopian government once the hostilities ceased and they were returned to Ogaden. It is reported that the military leaders are said to be dead set on getting the numbers they require for their conscription plans.

There is a twin operation to enlist civilians for a mission whose objectives and aims are yet unknown. The civilians were asked by the Ethiopian military and its affiliated militia heads to provide up to one hundred youth from all sectors of the population.

These military leaders have told the civilians that the youth will be given an educational seminar meant to educate them about the dangers posed by the Somali Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).

Meanwhile, Abdirahman Dinari, the spokesman of the TFG, said Ethiopian forces would remain in Somalia for as long as they were needed to complete their "mission" there. The Ethiopian troops' mission in Somalia is "to provide logistical support and train our forces". Dinari said the Ethiopians were in Somalia at the invitation of the country's government.

In Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said his troops could leave within two weeks.

Sources: IRIN: Somalia: Protect Children From Conscription, Say Aid Agencies, 2 January 2007, Garowe online: Ethiopia: Military conscription campaign in Ogaden, 5 December 2006

Morocco to abolish conscription

Morocco is to abolish compulsory military service in a move aimed at blocking infiltration of the military by Islamists hatching an anti-monarchist plot.

Analysts believe the security concerns had deepened since the discovery in August of a group, Ansar Al Mehdi (Mehdi Partisans), accused by government of planning to launch a holy war to establish a caliphate Islamic state.

The group infiltrated the army and police to recruit at least nine of their members.

"This text of law came to abolish the obligatory military service with immediate effect, according to the instructions of his Majesty King Mohammed, the commander-in-chief and the chief of staff of the royal armed forces," said junior defence minister, Abderrhmane Sbai.

He said conscription had been breeding a "climate of apathy" and had not been meeting "the requirements of professionalism and scientific and technological training".

All Moroccan men have had to undertake a year's compulsory military service. Morocco's 300 000 troops will instead become paid professional servicemen.

Source: IOL, 1 December 2006, i On Global Trends, 2 December 2006

Recent co-alerts

In the previous month, the WRI office issued the following co-alerts:

(a full archive of co-alerts is available at wri-irg.org/news/alerts)

• ISRAEL: Woman CO Hadas Amit sentenced to second prison term of 10 days Concodoc project, 02 January 2007
• TURKEY: Conscientious objector Halil Savda remains in custody Concodoc at WRI, 25 December 2006
• ISRAEL: Woman CO Hadas Amit sentenced to 14 days imprisonment Concodoc project, 18 December 2006
• COLOMBIA: Conscientious objector Luis Fernando Callejas recruited to military by force Concodoc project, 12 December 2006
• TURKEY: Conscientious objector Halil Savda arrested Concodoc project, 07 December 2006