Kelonian States
09-09-2004, 04:12
In the latest move towards a more liberal government, the government of Kelonian States called a halt to the military service requirement for 19-year-olds. School and college students around the country have been celebrating long into the night as the spectre of a 2-year hitch in the military suddenly vanished from the horizon. The government had called a vote on the issue, with the Governors of the seven Kelonian provinces voting early this afternoon (the governors of the territories of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan were exempted as the draft did not effect citizens there anyway), and by a majority of 6 to 1 voted to end the draft - those currently on active service will have to finish their hitch, but there will be no more admitted to service. The move has been hailed as a positive measure by military and non-military leaders alike;
Military spokesman Gen. Grigori Dasyev had this to say about the move; "Every year when the college year ends we would have thousands of new recruits we would have to train - it takes a lot of time to train a soldier, and with the amount of youngsters coming through on the increase, it looked like we were going to be spending more time training the new boys than honing our own skills. Not taking anything away from new recruits, but we prefer to train people who are here because they want to be - they make better soldiers". His words ring true, say statisticians, who say that the end of the war 20 years ago lead to much celebrating amongst reunited families, and caused a huge 'baby boom' which is just now beginning to come through - if all who were eligible were drafted, the military would be swamped by new recruits, and Dasayev says he would rather have a tight-knit, well-trained army than a force of sheer numbers.
Governor Hakan Markhov, the only governor to vote for the continuation of the draft, said this could cause employment problems, especially in his province, and promised a 'strong and lengthy media campaign to encourage youths into the media', although Premier Maksim Romaninko warned him against using any strong-arm tactics to boost military recruitment in his area, saying "the spirit of this government is not one of heavy-handed jackbooting of it's subordinate groups, and it is not my place to tell Governor Markhov how best to run his province, but I must warn him against using forceful or deceitful tactics to try to incite people into the military - we are built on honesty, and we expect honesty and honour from our military officials. the central government officially advises Governor Markhov to keep their campaign to a minimum".
Romaninko, who's Vice-Premier Zamantha Flakkov suggested the move, was in surprise agreement with Osmid Tashkayev, Governor of Gurovna, on the issue, and this was another sign of improving relations with the Gurov people, who are rapidly beginning to see seperatist rebel groups as burdens rather than visionaries. While the two stopped short of a handshake - Tashkayev is angered by Romaninko's hard-line stance on the province, cutting off supplies and eroding national influence, and Romaninko is annoyed by Tashkayev's refusal to take a hard line against the seperatists, who last week strung up and killed a police patrol just north of the three-way provincial border town of Nakensk - there was a sense of mutual agreement that has been lacking in most recent relations. Kelonia asks the international community to tell us if you feel this is a positive move - does this make our nation seem less militaristic and more of an attractive holiday destination? Give us your opinions...
In other news, internet monitoring will go into force tonight over most of Kelonia, with remaining areas being covered within the next month - this new system does not block access to websites, but maintains a log of who has accessed questionable sites and for how long. This has only been possible in the last year or two since the government nationalised the three internet 'backbone' servers located in Kelonia, and in the interests of public calm have to allow an independant group of journalists to see how the system works, to prove it is not being exploited in a 'big brother' system. "the computer only cares if you're trying to look for bomb blueprints" said designer Dimitri Yakovin, "so it lists sites, not keywords - typing 'thats da bomb' into an instant messenger won't have the KSA knocking on your door."
Military spokesman Gen. Grigori Dasyev had this to say about the move; "Every year when the college year ends we would have thousands of new recruits we would have to train - it takes a lot of time to train a soldier, and with the amount of youngsters coming through on the increase, it looked like we were going to be spending more time training the new boys than honing our own skills. Not taking anything away from new recruits, but we prefer to train people who are here because they want to be - they make better soldiers". His words ring true, say statisticians, who say that the end of the war 20 years ago lead to much celebrating amongst reunited families, and caused a huge 'baby boom' which is just now beginning to come through - if all who were eligible were drafted, the military would be swamped by new recruits, and Dasayev says he would rather have a tight-knit, well-trained army than a force of sheer numbers.
Governor Hakan Markhov, the only governor to vote for the continuation of the draft, said this could cause employment problems, especially in his province, and promised a 'strong and lengthy media campaign to encourage youths into the media', although Premier Maksim Romaninko warned him against using any strong-arm tactics to boost military recruitment in his area, saying "the spirit of this government is not one of heavy-handed jackbooting of it's subordinate groups, and it is not my place to tell Governor Markhov how best to run his province, but I must warn him against using forceful or deceitful tactics to try to incite people into the military - we are built on honesty, and we expect honesty and honour from our military officials. the central government officially advises Governor Markhov to keep their campaign to a minimum".
Romaninko, who's Vice-Premier Zamantha Flakkov suggested the move, was in surprise agreement with Osmid Tashkayev, Governor of Gurovna, on the issue, and this was another sign of improving relations with the Gurov people, who are rapidly beginning to see seperatist rebel groups as burdens rather than visionaries. While the two stopped short of a handshake - Tashkayev is angered by Romaninko's hard-line stance on the province, cutting off supplies and eroding national influence, and Romaninko is annoyed by Tashkayev's refusal to take a hard line against the seperatists, who last week strung up and killed a police patrol just north of the three-way provincial border town of Nakensk - there was a sense of mutual agreement that has been lacking in most recent relations. Kelonia asks the international community to tell us if you feel this is a positive move - does this make our nation seem less militaristic and more of an attractive holiday destination? Give us your opinions...
In other news, internet monitoring will go into force tonight over most of Kelonia, with remaining areas being covered within the next month - this new system does not block access to websites, but maintains a log of who has accessed questionable sites and for how long. This has only been possible in the last year or two since the government nationalised the three internet 'backbone' servers located in Kelonia, and in the interests of public calm have to allow an independant group of journalists to see how the system works, to prove it is not being exploited in a 'big brother' system. "the computer only cares if you're trying to look for bomb blueprints" said designer Dimitri Yakovin, "so it lists sites, not keywords - typing 'thats da bomb' into an instant messenger won't have the KSA knocking on your door."