Escaping national service in Eritrea

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2023

⏱️ 26 minutes

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Summary

In 2002, the Eritrean government extended its programme of compulsory national service to make it open-ended. Instead of serving 18 months as the government had originally decreed, most students finishing secondary school would be conscripted and forced to remain in government service indefinitely - either serving in the army or in civilian jobs. The Eritrean government said conscription was necessary because the recently ended war with neighbouring Ethiopia could break out again. But the prospect of working for the state for an indefinite period, without a proper salary, prompted many young Eritreans to begin trying to escape to neighbouring countries and to Europe. Over the past 20 years hundreds of thousands have left. It’s an exodus that continues to this day. Rob Walker speaks to Semhar Ghebreslassie who began her national service working as a teacher in 2008. This programme contains descriptions of sexual violence. (Picture: Eritrean migrants. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, thanks for downloading this podcast from Witness History on the BBC World Service.
0:10.0	I'm Rob Walker.
0:11.0	In today's programme, a story from Eritrea in the 2000s.
0:15.0	It's a disturbing account of one young woman's experience of national service there and of the risks of trying to escape it.
0:22.0	Just a warning at the beginning that the programme does include details of sexual violence.
0:30.0	The people of Eritrea took to the streets celebrating their independence after 30 years of brutal civil war.
0:36.0	When Eritrea became independent in 1993, the national service programme introduced by the new government was seen by many as a necessary step.
0:45.0	The world's newest nation faces immense problems. The economy and infrastructure are in ruins.
0:51.0	To help rebuild the country, young people were conscripted to work unpaid for a year and a half.
0:56.0	And many did it willingly, eager to play their part after the long war of independence from neighbouring Ethiopia.
1:03.0	But this national service soon turned into something very different.
1:09.0	It is the largest conventional war in the world today, between two of the poorest countries on Earth.
1:15.0	When war broke out again with Ethiopia in 1998, conscripts were sent to fight on the front line.
1:22.0	This network of fortified bunkers stretching over a 15-mile front was built by tens of thousands of Eritrea and conscripts with nothing more than picks and shuttles.
1:32.0	After the war ended in 2000, those conscripts remained in national service.
1:37.0	Initially, the government said they couldn't be demobilised in case the war restarted.
1:42.0	But by 2002, it had become clear that demobilisation wasn't going to happen.
1:47.0	Instead, the government announced that national service was going to be open-ended.
1:52.0	Incredible as it may sound, that meant you could be forced to serve without salary for decades.
1:58.0	Not surprisingly, many school leaveers began to look for ways to avoid national service.
2:04.0	But the government then made another extraordinary announcement.
2:08.0	From that point onwards, all of the country's high school students would have to spend their final year in a huge military camp.
	...

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