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Young men, women in Sweden to receive conscription letters this week

Xinhua, April 10, 2017 Adjust font size:

About 20,000 youth here are to be the first to receive conscription letters in the mail this week -- the first since the Swedish government re-introduced mandatory military service in March after seven years without it, Swedish Television (SVT) reported on Monday.

In the letter, young Swedes will be asked to answer an online questionnaire. Those who do not answer within 14 days will be fined, reported SVT.

"Before, only men in the relevant age group were called, but now men and women will be called," Bengt Forssten of the Swedish Defence Recruitment Agency, told SVT.

The mandatory conscription applies to 90,000 Swedes born in 1999. About 5,000 slots will be filled through a vetting process that will assess applicants' suitability and level of interest, SVT reports.

The online questionnaire is step one in the vetting process and includes questions about physical health, education, alcohol habits and attitude towards conscription.

But Forssten said there was no need to trick the system because those who weren't interested were unlikely to be called for service.

"We can call anyone we like from this age group, but the policy is clear that this is supposed to be based on volunteerism," said Forssten, SVT reported, citing TT news agency.

The government announced its decision to reintroduce conscription on March 2, after a seven-year hiatus in mandatory military service. This weekend, the recruiting agency launched an information campaign about it on social media. Despite this, young people are saying that there hasn't been enough information.

"I had no idea how this works. No one is talking about it and there isn't enough information. I think a whole lot of people will have trouble filling in the questionnaire -- partly because they won't see it, but also out of principle," high school student Harvey Svensson, 17, told TT news agency, SVT reported. Endit