There is a long Albanian tradition of bearing arms, especially in the north.
Although from the 19th century onwards various governments have attempted to
bring the gun situation under control, success has been dependent on the level
of trust in society. Matters were not helped by the post-1945 policy of “defence
in depth” where fear of invasion led to some 800,000 pillboxes being erected
throughout the country. Disaster struck in March 1997, when military depots were
raided and 650,000 guns, 3,500,000 grenades, 1,000,000 mines and 1,500,000,000
rounds of ammo entered the civilian population of 3.5 million.
The government was able to recover some 10% of the guns by announcing an amnesty
but with the situation on the Kosovan border being so volatile, people do not
trust the government with their security. This has led the UN, in association
with IANSA members, to initiate a novel and successful Weapons Exchange for Development
(WfD) scheme.
The pilot scheme was started in the central Gramsh district, where the scale
of the problem is illustrated by the estimate that there were over 10,000 SALW
for a population of under 60,000. By 2000, some 6,000 weapons had been recovered.
The idea was to invest money updating the infrastructure of the district, as
determined by the local village communes, in exchange for those communes organising
the return of guns, explosives and ammunition. In addition to removing often
very poorly stored ordinance from the district, there were development benefits
such as 22km of road improvements, more street lighting and a better communication
network. A coalition of Albanian NGOs campaigned with t-shirts, posters and leaflets
and with the help of documentaries commissioned by the BBC World Service, the
WfD scheme became the highest profile project in the country. Andorra, Belgium,
Italy, Japan, Norway, UK and EU contributed money.
Extending the Gramsh project throughout Albania has resulted in the collection
of 200,000 small arms, according to government figures. In September 2002, the
American, German and Norwegian governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding
whereby Albania undertakes to destroy 100,000 small arms. The destruction caveat
is very important, for the government has proven reluctant to destroy collected
SALW in the past because of the perceived threat posed by neighbouring states.
In a similar vein, the Ottowa Convention has been ratified and with $800,000
provided by Canada, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK, 1.6
million landmines were destroyed by the end of 2002. The Tirana UNDP SALW Control
Project will extend the Gramsh project to a much larger area of some thousand
villages and the SECI centre will be involved in an upcoming “Operation
Ploughshares”. A further 4-year ammunition destruction project has been
started with primarily Canadian backing.
Organisations
Ministry
of Public Order (English)
SAFER Albania (e-mail saferalbania@yahoo.com)
BICC
Albania
UNDP Albania
OSCE Albania
SEESAC
Albania
Other links
BICC
page on weapons handling during the Gramsh project
OSCE
factsheet in English and Albanian
BASIC
page comparing SALW destruction in Albania with projects
elsewhere
EOD
Solution Ltd (involved in the SALW destruction)
Report
on the successful destruction of surplus landmines (2002) |
