MINSK. April 10 (Interfax) - Belarus could resume the practice of conscripting students into the army, Belarusian Security Council State Secretary Alexander Volfovich said at a meeting with higher-education heads at the Education Ministry on Monday.
"I would like to pose some questions to the rectors. Of course, I am not expecting them to answer right away. I will give them time to think it through and to submit proposals, in the form of their thoughts, to the State Secretariat of the Security Council. How to train students at military departments [within universities], what in general their views and attitudes are to students being called up for duty, as they once were in the Soviet Union. After all, everything new is the well-forgotten old," Volfovich was quoted by the BelTA state news agency as saying.
"Now, military departments could cut the number of hours of training afterwards, someone could enroll in a military department consciously and some might think they do not need it, having served in the army," he added.