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Syria clears 250 draft dodgers, armed men

Xinhua, August 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Syrian authorities on Thursday cleared the records of 250 draft dodgers and men who held up arms in the face of the government, the state news agency SANA reported.

After the draft dodgers turned themselves in to one of the military posts in the rugged Qalamoun region in the northern countryside of capital Damascus, their criminal records were cleared, according to SANA.

The state news agency didn't elaborate, but those who averted to report to service will be enlisted to serve their two years mandatory service, while the armed men will likely be enlisted in the local defense forces, a paramilitary force that fight alongside the Syrian army.

The latest development came just days after President Bashar al-Assad issued a presidential pardon regarding military service violations.

The amnesty covers the crimes of desertion inside Syria and abroad as well as other military service-related crimes mentioned in the military law, said SANA.

The reports said that the amnesty gives defectors who fled the country two months to hand themselves in, and one month for those still inside Syria.

The president usually issues such amnesties each year, but this year the pardon on the military service violations has a special importance amid reports of high number of draft dodgers.

Right now, pro-Damascus military forces are overstretched on a two-front to crash domestic rebels backed by Western powers and the Islamic State militant group that has been occupying a large part of the civil-war torn nation and wrecking a great havoc.

Western reports said recently that the Syrian army, with 300,000 fighters ahead of the crisis, has lost a lot of its soldiers during the grinding conflict, speculating that the pardon was made to bring more man power to the military.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based watchdog group, said recently that there are 70 thousands draft dodgers who averted to report to service since the beginning of the Syrian crisis in mid-March 2011.

Local community advertisement campaigns have started mushrooming in the capital Damascus, urging the young men to join the military service.

"Join the army," "the army is ours" or "with our army we win our country," read some street signs. Enditem