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Lithuania starts second year of military conscription

Xinhua, January 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

Lithuanian defense ministry announced on Monday the lists of draftees for military conscription in 2016.

The lists include the names of 30,228 men aged from 19 to 26. Around 3,000 of them will be conscripted for a nine-month mandatory military service.

According to the ministry, in the coming weeks the draftees will receive conscription notices with the request to report themselves at military service and manning offices.

This year, the lists include some of the country's most prominent young athletes. Jonas Valanciunas, a 23-year-old center forward from Toronto Raptors, has been listed the 32nd in his regional military draft list and the 188th among all 30,228 draftees.

"This means, there's a high probability, the player representing Toronto Raptors can be conscripted," reported Lithuanian basketball news website basketnews.lt.

Though, Valanciunas can avoid mandatory military service in case the defense ministry receives sufficient interest from volunteers. Last year, the mandatory military service was based on volunteers.

"Based on the experience we had had with the last year's drafts, it's probable that the draft lists may not be needed," Juozas Olekas, Lithuania's defense minister, told BNS news agency, noting that the ministry has already received applications from around 600 volunteers.

In 2014 amid rising geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe, Lithuania, a Baltic State, reintroduced military conscription, which was abolished in 2008. The country conscripts around 3,000 men every year.

The decision to build up the military reserve with the conscripts was implemented for five years, but recently the leaders of the country have expressed willingness to extend military conscription after 2020. Endit