Over 2,300 students voluntarily dropped out of school and joined the army during the recent spring draft, Tajik Education Minister Rakhim Saidzoda said at a July 19 press conference.
According to him, most of the recruits are law graduates who “decided to pass their exams ahead of schedule and pay back to their homeland.” “Many of them intend to continue to work in law enforcement agencies, and by law, they must serve in the army,” the minister added.
In May of this year, the Tajik Ministry of Defense reported a successful spring 2022 draft campaign and a large number of student volunteers, but human rights activists received complaints from university graduates about being forced into the army.
“In recent years, the authority of the Armed Forces among the population, especially among young people, has increased. Many with a high sense of patriotism and filial duty, after receiving the call-up paper, arrive at the military commissariats at their place of residence. A statistical analysis of the first month of this important political campaign shows that in the spring of 2022, the number of young people who voluntarily entered the military service and have a higher education is significantly higher than in previous years, ”the representative of the Ministry of Defense said at the time.
Meanwhile, during the same period, human rights activists received complaints from 4th and 5th-year students of higher educational institutions that they were being forced to sign an application for early graduation exams and “voluntary” military service. “In return, police officers and military registration and enlistment offices promise to help with the successful passing of exams, and those who oppose are threatened with expulsion. Students of Khujand State University come to us with similar complaints,” said Dilrabo Samadova, head of the Office of Civil Liberties, a non-governmental organization for the protection of the rights of conscripts and military personnel.
According to her, in a month they received about 200 complaints from young men about the course of the draft campaign, including the “raids”.
Similar complaints were received then from other regions of the country.
The Ministry of Education and Science says that there is no “forcing”, and “patriotically educated students make a conscious choice in favor of serving in the country’s Armed Forces.” “Therefore, we decided to give young people such an opportunity,” said a source in the ministry.
A new version of the law “On military duty and military service” was adopted in early 2021. The main amendments were that from now on both bachelor’s and master’s students are called up for military service. Previously, this category of students was exempted from military service.
