The start of the Bermuda Regiment's boot camp was marred by late arrivals and complaints from Bermudians Against the Draft.

The group claimed the Regiment was not respecting the men's right to challenge the conscription law.

Yesterday, Larry Marshall, who is leading the group, claimed that three of those involved in the legal action were hassled by the Regiment.

"We filed the writ on December 5 and the Regiment needs to respect the highest court in the land. At the moment they are not because they have threatened to pick up two of our young men today.

"This afternoon I received two calls from members indicating the Regimental Police were calling them and threatening to come and pick them up. That is grossly unfair because they are part of a legal challenge against the system.

"They need to respect the rights of these young men to take them to court and allow the courts to decide if conscription is constitutionally right or not."

The group of 11 has launched a Supreme Court battle to get conscription outlawed in Bermuda.

The men believe that conscription breaches their right to freedom, under the Human Rights Act, and that it is is gender biased because it only affects young men.

There was also a report yesterday that a member of the group was being held at Warwick Camp but Capt. Marlon Williams, second in command of the recruit camp this year, said that was not true.

He also denied that the Regimental Police had called any of the young men involved in the legal challenge yesterday.

Mr. Marshall said he did not know of anyone being locked up but that one member of the group had been kept at the Regiment till the early evening. He said the young man's day was wasted while the Regiment decided if his medical certificate made him exempt from service. The young man was granted a one-year deferral as a result of his injury.

Like many other years yesterday's boot camp began with spectators and well-wishers cheering the new recruits on.

For the 146 recruits who arrived on time the process went smoothly as they stood in lines waiting to be assigned to a platoon. However for the late-comers the start of boot camp was less than pleasant.

This year 21 men chose to arrive after 8 a.m., some strolling out of their cars over 30 minutes late — despite the fact that punctuality is stressed.

While they kissed their mothers and girlfriends goodbye the crowd of more than 150 people urged them to hurry up.

At the gates Regimental Police welcomed them with shouts of: "You're late. Start running!"

Carrying ruck-sacks and additional bags the late recruits were forced to run past their comrades and go to another area of the camp where they were disciplined. Some of the young men had over packed and clearly struggled to run with their heavy bags — a skill they will hopefully possess at the end of the two-week experience. Capt. Williams said that late arrivals were unfortunately common and speculated that this year there were more tardy men than usual.

"The late arrivals show a blatant disregard for authority. It happens every year, like the coming of the tide. You would think that they would know better.

"We have two weeks to turn these civilians into soldiers and teach them respect for authority and the importance of punctuality."

Capt. Williams said the first day of boot camp was without incident last night while Mr. Marshall said affidavits will be served on Commander in Chief of the Regiment, Governor Sir John Vereker, plus the Deputy Governor Mark Capes and Attorney General Philip Perinchief in the coming weeks.