Albania to Destroy Surplus Ammunition by 2013
Albania’s remaining stock of 45,000 tonnes of surplus ammunition will be disposed of by 2013, Albania’s Minister of Defence Arben Imami said today.
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| Shells collected by the army after the explosion on March 15, 2008 | Photo by Besar Likmeta |
“Our goal is to reduce the danger they pose to citizens,” Imami said during a press conference held on Tuesday in Tirana.
According to the Ministry of Defence, with the help of the United States and the OSCE, Albania managed to dispose of 20,000 tonnes of ammunitions in 2010, and another 25,000 tones will be disposed of in 2011.
Only three years ago, on March 15, 2008, an explosion at a munitions demolition depot in the village of Gerdec, ten kilometres outside Tirana, killed 26 people, wounded over 300 and left thousands of others homeless.
The explosions began when workers were moving stocks of old Chinese and Soviet shells stored at the base, a central collection point for the arsenal amassed by the communist-era dictatorship of Enver Hoxha.
Albania has been trying for years to dismantle the obsolete arsenal, which was one of the conditions for the country’s successful entry into NATO in April 2009.
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