MSNBC 2/3 - Brit Military Sikhs Moor Minorities Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - "Edmond J. O'Neill" U.K. military seeks ethnic minorities Officials prefer to call program goal-setting, not quotas REUTER LONDON, Feb. 3 -- Britain's armed forces are trying to woo ethnic minorities into their ranks with a major recruitment drive. "We want to reflect the diversity of British society," said a defense ministry official on Tuesday as a special ethnic minorities recruitment team toured the country to try to sign on young Asians and blacks. BARELY ONE percent of the armed forces come from ethnic minorities in Britain's multi-cultural society. The aim is to boost that figure to five percent by the year 2002. "We are not talking quotas, we are talking goals," the official said. Even General Sir Roger Wheeler, chief of the General Staff, has admitted: "Whether we like it or not, there is a perception that the army is a racist organization." So Sikhs are being assured they can wear their turbans, Jews their skullcaps and Muslim women their trousers. "We have religious leaders who advise us on religious requirements. They can have church, mosque or temple visits," the defense ministry official said. "Arrangements can be made for daily prayer -- except in the face of the enemy," he added. Operational requirements will always be paramount in the front line. Sikhs may have to remove their turbans to wear flying helmets or a tank commander's helmet. Beards may have to be shaved off to ensure gas masks are sealed tight. The army stresses that it makes every effort to allow soldiers to celebrate religious festivals like Yom Kippur for the Jews and Diwali for the Hindus. Now defense chiefs are looking at how the diet of ethnic minorities can be catered for -- from kosher to halal ration packs. But, as The Soldier, the in-house magazine for the army, stressed, not every requirement can be granted in battle. "Muslims are normally allowed to fast during Ramadan, although it might be discouraged on operations or when physical demands on the individual are high enough to make fasting hazardous," it noted. The recruiting team eager to be seen as ethnic role models is led by Ghanaian-born Captain "Fiddles" Datsun who came to Britain with his parents when he was three. His face was superimposed on that of Lord Kitchener for a re-release of the famous World War recruitment poster declaring: "Your country needs you." And Datsun has no complaints: "Personally I've never had any negative responses in my army career. It's all to do with my personality. I've got on because of my personality." (c) 1998 Reuter Limited. All rights reserved. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytrc-02.04.98-09:29:57-21012