15/03/1998
1 Conscription
conscription exists
Conscription has existed ever since the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic in 1975.
The present legal basis of conscription is the 1994 Law on Military Service. [1]
The armed forces have been significantly reduced in recent years, from about 50,000 troops in the early 1980s to 29,000 by 1997. Since Laos no longer receives financial assistance from Vietnam and the former Soviet Union, maintaining the armed forces has become more difficult.