Lithuania to drop the draft

VILINIUS - The Lithuanian Defense Minister has signed a decree ending mandatory military service in the country and beginning the transition to a professional army. The decree, which was approved on Monday, went into effect immediately.

"By confirming the marginal national defense figures, the Seimas [Lithuanian parliament] passed a political decision to switch over to forming a professional, volunteer-based army," Defense Minister Juozas Olekas said in a ministry press release.

"This year we have enlisted almost the provisioned number of young officers, with very successful enlistment for professional military service, therefore a decision was made to no longer implement conscription," he said.

The decree also, however, required conscripts that have already been enlisted to stay at their post until at least July 1, 2009.

Though Lithuanians will no longer be subject to the draft, the constitutional clause stating that all citizens must be willing to "defend one's homeland" is still in place.

"The Constitutional obligation to defend one's homeland remains in place, and we invite all youths to meet this obligation by enlisting in the national defense volunteer forces and coming to serve in the professional army," the defense minister said.

Opposition parties say that the country will not be able to properly defend itself with a professional army and claim that the move was a ploy for the ruling party to gain popularity ahead of the upcoming elections.

"We can only regret that the Social Democrat government is making especially important and controversial decisions on national defense issues at the time of an election campaign," Parliamentary National Security and Defense Committee and opposition MP Rasa Jukneviciene was quoted by the Baltic News Service as saying.

"[A] professional army alone cannot warrant wide territorial defense and the nation's readiness to counter not only potential military aggression, but also other types of attacks against Lithuania," she said.