Arms Control & Non Proliferation

Documents & Texts from America.gov

29 May 2009
U.S. Helps Nations Reduce, Destroy Excess Weapons and Munitions

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington — Huge stockpiles of small arms, light weapons and aging munitions that were likely acquired decades ago now pose security and safety concerns for nations in every region of the world, say U.S. officials.

The United States is committed to helping other nations reduce and destroy stockpiles of excess weapons and often unstable munitions, a State Department official says. Stockpiles of such old weapons can pose significant hazards. For example, a deadly explosion in March 2008 at a disposal factory outside Tirana, Albania, a collection point for an arsenal from the former Cold War regime, killed 26 people and injured another 302. The blast damaged 5,500 houses in the area.

“Ammunition and explosives … are aging, decaying, and are blowing up with greater regularity,” said David Diaz, a foreign affairs officer in the State Department’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement. The office helps governments deal with these and other issues related to weapons-reduction efforts.

“Aging, excess and loosely secured stockpiles of conventional weapons and munitions are a major issue in Southeast Europe,” the office said recently in announcing a new regional approach to the problem. “The stockpiles pose threats of illicit proliferation, accidental explosion, widespread destruction, extensive human casualties and environmental damage.”

“Since 2006, munitions stockpile explosions in Albania, Bulgaria and Serbia have caused significant damage, and, in some cases, large numbers of casualties, as well as displacing civilians from their homes and communities,” the office said.

Many countries across the globe store hundreds of thousands of tons of excess ammunition and weapons in old military depots. They could fall into the hands of criminals and illegal arms dealers, Diaz said.

“As these national military forces have downsized after the Cold War, they may not have the resources to properly secure and manage the munitions,” Diaz said in a recent interview with America.gov. “They may simply not have the need to retain such large stockpiles. That puts these stockpiles at risk of either slipping out the back door and proliferating illicitly, or blowing up and creating a humanitarian disaster, or threatening the local civilian populace.”

A workshop was held in Zagreb, Croatia, recently to determine if a regional approach to stockpile reduction would be beneficial. Representatives from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia participated, and Kosovo and Macedonia were also invited. Many of the discussions were simply a sharing of ideas and approaches to the problem, Diaz said, and participants want more workshops to expand the talks.

The workshop also served to launch the South East Europe Regional Approach to Stockpile Reduction, known as RASR. It is an open-ended coordination process that includes defense officials from seven Southeast European countries and representatives from the U.S. departments of State and Defense as well as technical and policy experts from international organizations including NATO, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the United Nations Development Programme, the South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, and the International Trust Fund.

Diaz said the problem is global and found in every region. But the regional perspective means making better use of existing resources to achieve better results without increasing spending during a period of economic crisis, he said.

WEAPONS DESTRUCTION

The types of weapons found in these stockpiles are small arms and light weapons that are easily transported and are generally smaller than 100 millimeters in caliber, Diaz said.

“We will work with the host nation’s military to identify what they desire to reduce — the number of weapons and the amount of munitions,” he said.

The United States either can help fund programs to destroy excess weapons and ammunition, or if the infrastructure for doing so is not there, bring in outside contractors to help the host government.

“We can do it through a variety of means depending on the host nation, the environmental impact, and the cost,” Diaz said. Weapons and munitions can be destroyed in an open pit using explosives on a military range, or they can be destroyed in a factory so the materials can be recycled for commercial use. Old weapons can be melted, cut or crushed.

The challenges in some regions can vary, he said. One country may have to destroy 20,000 to 30,000 weapons and 10,000 to 15,000 tons of munitions, and a country next to it may have five times those numbers, he said.

“We can adjust our program to the needs of the country, to fit the industrial capacity of the country and its environmental concerns,” he said.

To further expand the effectiveness of weapons reduction programs, the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in late 2008 established a quick reaction force to respond to urgent humanitarian needs that require the rapid removal or destruction of explosive hazards to protect civilians.

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