According to state media, 18,000 Eritrean youth completed their 18-month national service training program on December 9^th, 2006.  This is the 19th round since national service was made an Eritrean policy after independence. The graduation ceremony was televised �live� and it was claimed that only one individual was martyred at boot camp and only 18 had deserted. For the first time, parents of the graduating students were granted a free bus fare to Assab and, in addition to Commander Haile �China� Samuel, all PFDJ military diginitaries (commanders of the other operations zones) were present. The commander-in-chief, President Isaias Afwerki was still in Italy, on vacation, with General Sebhat Ephrem, his defense minister, serving as his stand-in. The occasion was meant to demonstrate a show of force to friends and foe alike. Unfortunately, this latest charade, like almost everything the PFDJ does nowadays, is a continuation of the self-deception that the ruling party has chosen to engage in.

1. Location:  Kiloma is located 40 kilometers south of Assab. The first question is why did the government discontinue the use of Sawa military camp?  The answer is that Sawa is close to the border town of Tessenei, and the government had found that there is no effective method to reduce desertion from people who are conscripted by force. The choice of the remote Kiloma was meant to minimize desertion.
2. Training:  The 8-month military training consisted of long marches, requiring the conscripts to walk up to 40 kilometers per day in the harsh climate. The training is not designed to convert civilians into fighting machines but to break the spirit of a youth which daily plots to find a way to escape.
3. Isolation:  While at the Kiloma military camp, conscripts are not allowed to send letters to, or receive letters from, their parents. Nor are phone calls or visitations allowed for 18 months. Worried parents have absolutely no way of knowing whether their children are alive, healthy, sick, dead or have deserted.  For all parents, attending the graduation ceremony was the only way to find out whether their children are alive or dead. Those who found their children were televised expressing their jubilation and serving the government�s propaganda of �popular participation�; parents who did not find their children, estimated in the hundreds by witnesses, were blocked by armed guards and isolated so their anguish could not be televised.
4. Attrition: The number of those who have been �martyred� includes anyone who died at Kilma, regardless of cause of death and it is certainly more than the 1 reported by government media. Those who deserted are not 18; they number in the hundreds. Still, even after this �attrition� number, the number of graduates is significantly over the 18,000 reported.  The reason that 18,000 is cited is due to legitimate national security reasons (many governments are loathe to give the precise number of their defense forces) as well as self-deception: the government fully expects that hundreds of those who have graduated will either desert or die and wants to use that number as its baseline.

In summary, the PFDJ may wish to deceive itself that it has graduated a batch of youth who have been sufficiently indoctrinated with patriotism and a willingness to serve and defend the country.  However, because it has continuously demonstrated that it does not trust them or their parents, all it has done is to increase the determination of people who will find ways to get out of their bondage.