Excess weaponry, ammunition to be disposed of by 2014, says minister

TIRANA, Feb. 3 – Defense Minister Arben Imami said Wednesday that the army, domestic authrotities and NATO had prepared a plan on how to collect the remaining weapons and ammunition in the country.
Imami told public television station TVSH that the army and other authorities had already prepared a plan in cooperation with the U.S. Defense Department and NATO to get rid of all weaponry and excess ammunition by 2014, according to a government goal.
The ministry has created a monitoring board to check the detailed plan’s operation and will centralize the work, espcially in managing thousands of army depots all around the country.
“We shall manage to have a disposal process in the shortest time possible and with the least possible danger so that Albania escapes from such a heavy burden,” said the minister.
Two years ago a series of massive explosions at an arms disposal site killed 26 people and injured 300.
Former defense Minister Fatmir Mediu was first charged with breach of duty, but he was later released after winning the post of lawmaker at the last year’s general elections.
Others charged include former army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Luan Shehu and 27 other ministry and army officials, as well other individuals of the private company.
Mediu resigned in the wake of the disaster and then the parliament lifted his immunity. Then last September he was also nominated again to the governing cabinet, this time as environment minister.
The trial is ongoing.
About 90,000 tons of excess ammunition, mostly Russian and Chinese artillery shells made in the 1960s or earlier, are stored in old army depots across formerly communist Albania.