Maputo — This year's registration of 18 year olds for military service began on Thursday, but virtually nobody bothered to attend the various registration posts set up in the Mozambican capital.
Registration runs from 2 January to 28 February, and in theory every Mozambican, of either sex, who celebrates his or her 18th birthday this year, should register. The armed forces (FADM) later select those whom they wish to call up for conscription.
AIM visited the main Maputo registration posts, and could not find anyone who was actually registering. There were a few youths who went to the posts, but only to gather information, such as what documents they needed to bring with them when registering.
By midday only one person, student Mario Amos, had appeared at the registration post in the Xipamanine neighbourhood. He said he had heard about military registration from the media, and decided to visit the post to find out what documentation he needed. The National Director of Human Resources in the Defence Ministry, Joaquim Mataruca, shrugged off the poor turnout on the first day. He told AIM he thought it "normal", given that this was still the festive season.
"We think that the flow of people to the registration centres will gradually increase", he said. Mataruca lamented the fact that registration coincides with the rainy season, which made it difficult both for the registration brigades and for the potential recruits themselves to move around easily.
However, he was pleased that Mozambicans living abroad would be able to register. He said the defence ministry was working with Mozambican embassies and consulates to make sure that this would happen. "We want to make this process as inclusive as possible", he said.
But, judging by the past record, the vast majority of young Mozambicans will boycott military registration. In 2001 only 27,000 people registered for military service - yet there were over 300,000 people who turned 18 that year.
Mataruca says that the Ministry's target this year is 37,000. This means that the Ministry accepts that well over 90 per cent of 18 year olds will not register.
As in previous years, it seems that the Defence Ministry has not bothered to consult the 1997 population census. People who are 18 this year were 12 in 1997 - and the census counted 410,371 12-year olds.
A later coverage survey showed that the census counted 94.9 per cent of the population. Adjusting for this, we find that in 1997 there were 432,424 Mozambicans aged 12. From the figures on mortality in the census, we can estimate that around 13,500 of these have died in the following six years.
So the number of Mozambicans who turn 18 in 2003 can be calculated at about 424,000.
Yet the Defence Ministry only expects 37,000 - just 8.8 per cent of the total - to register.
