U.S. helps Albania destroy ammunition

TIRANA, Jan. 22 – Albania and the United States signed Monday an agreement to destroy 280 tons of excessive ammunition and 25,000 small and light weapons, the Defense Ministry reported. The deal was signed from Vice Minister Petrit Karabina and U.S. Deputy Ambassador Stephen Cristina. “The agreement is part of the continuous efforts of both countries to destroy thousands of tons of excessive small and light weaponry of the Albanian army depots,” said a statement. “Its signing also marks another important step in Albania’s road toward Euro-Atlantic integration,” the statement added.
Albania’s army has destroyed all of its anti-personnel mines and will eliminate all chemical agents as part of a big program to scrap excess weaponry by 2010. Meanwhile the army had destroyed some 150,000 light weaponry, 511 tanks and other transport equipment, 1,310 artillery pieces and 44,000 tons of ammunition. An estimated 550,000 weapons, 839 million rounds of ammunition and 16 million explosive devices were looted from Albanian army depots in 1997, when citizens enraged over losing their life savings in bogus pyramid investment schemes stormed army barracks. The government since has collected about 200,000 weapons and significant amounts of ordnance. Some 150,000 pieces of looted weaponry fell into militants’ hands in neighboring Kosova and Macedonia, while the remaining is believed to still be in people’s homes. The government has collected 223,000 weapons and some 118 million rounds of ammunition out of an estimated 550,000 weapons and 839 million rounds of ammunition stolen in 1997, the British group’s report said.