UK MP takes Regiment draft to the floor of the Commons

By Elizabeth Roberts

Fresh questions about conscription policy in Bermuda will be asked in Parliament today by a British MP who wants the practice abolished.

Andrew MacKinlay has leant his backing to Bermudians Against the Draft – a group of 13 men who are preparing a Supreme Court bid to get the call-up outlawed.

Branding the policy “21st century slavery” the group allege that the ballot which chooses conscripts is gender-biased and a breach of human rights because only men are picked.

Spokesman Larry Marshall Sr. has questioned why young Bermudians are made to serve when Britain outlawed conscription in the years after the Second World War.

Mr. MacKinlay has raised the issue in the British House of Commons in the past, explaining: “In this day and age I believe a person should be able to say ‘I don’t want to serve in the Army’.”

His interest in the issue stems from an article he read about the Regiment that, he claimed, showed conscripts arrested on the charge of desertion who were chained up and wearing orange prisoner’s jump-suits.

After The Royal Gazette revealed news of the Supreme Court bid, Mr. MacKinlay prepared a list of questions to ask British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Margaret Beckett today. They include:

• What assessment Mrs. Beckett has of the conscription policy, its impact on the British Government’s ‘ethical foreign policy’ and its equality and gender discrimination policies
• How many women serving with the Regiment have been conscripted
• What proportion of conscripts failed to answer the call for duty each year since 2000
• How many occasions in the last six years a leg brace has been used in respect of a Regiment conscript

Mrs. Beckett’s answers should be given within a week.

Mr. MacKinlay has asked several of the questions before, both in the year 2000 and last year.
Answers given by a previous Minister revealed that in 2006 more than 20 percent of conscripts called up did not join the Regiment ranks. According to information released since Recruit Camp 2007 kicked off at Regiment HQ on Sunday, around 700 men were selected in this year’s ballot with around ten percent absent and unaccounted for.

The Defence Board, not the Regiment, is responsible for conscription, and speaking on Monday Defence Administrator Larry Burchall said: “Some small number – this year about 35 – could not be found at all.

“Simply no trace. These could have emigrated. Others, this year about 39, have been contacted but have not yet appeared. These will be sought by the Regiment.”

Of the rest, around 170 turned up to Warwick Camp as ordered and the others were missing for reasons including living overseas, being unfit, or doing alternate service with the Police Reserves, St. George Volunteer Fire Brigade or St. John Ambulance Brigade.

News of the topic being raised in the British Parliament was welcomed by Mr. Marshall Sr., who started Bermudians Against the Draft through opposition to his sons Larry Jr. and Lamont being conscripted. “I could not have come up with better questions myself. It should really help our case over in England,” he said.

Mr. Burchall, when invited to comment on Mr. MacKinlay’s latest questions in Parliament, referred to the fact that similar questions were asked in 2001. “He was answered in 2001. He is being answered now,” he added.

A Bermuda Regiment spokesperson said the Commanding Officer had no comment, and Government House also had nothing to say on the matter.

Via The Royal Gazette