29 people died this year in Kosovo from use of illegal weapons

Kosovo Police spokesman Daut Hoxha told Radio Free Europe that for years there have been reported incidents and criminal cases as a result of illegal possession and use of weapons.

He said Kosovo Police, based on legal competencies during the realisation of operational and investigative duties, seized weapons held or used illegally by citizens or anyone else.

“Based on statistics that we have like the Kosovo Police, over an average year we seize about 12,000 weapons of different types and ammunition of different calibre. During 2017, we confiscated 1211 weapons of various kinds and 26 thousand and 200 pieces of ammunition from different calibre. In the first six months of this year, however, 599 weapons and 832 different types of ammunition” have been confiscated, Hoxha said.

Co-ordinator for the Kosovo Security Project in the United Nations Development Programme in Kosovo (UNDP) Life Tella, Free Europe, told Radio that from past years' experiences, it can be said that in Kosovo, there is a decline in the number of illegal weapons.

Based on research or surveys conducted in Kosovo, it is believed that since 2006, on the basis of the strategy that was made, there have been about 360 thousand illegal weapons, while now according to recent polls, it is believed that there are about 260 thousand illegal weapons in the hands of citizens. But despite the work and progress achieved by the Kosovo Police, however, the presence of illegal weapons in the hands of citizens poses a danger to both public safety and citizens, but also to children in general”, Tela noted.

She said that progress has been made in the direction of weapons destruction.

“We, through our project constantly support the Kosovo Police in destruction, and for example during the 2008-2017 period, have confiscated about 144 weapons and more than 10,000 weapons” have been destroyed, she said.

Meanwhile, police spokesman Daut Hoxha said the police, in co-operation with competent authorities and various international organisations, are taking action to reduce the phenomenon of keeping illegal weapons.

Security organisations in Kosovo say the potential for use of illegal weapons on the part of citizens poses a danger, but according to them it is not high-level risk, because, as they claim, there is an awareness on the part of citizens from the risk of using illegal weapons.

According to reports by international organisations, states in Balkan countries have greater numbers of per capita weapons than other countries in Europe. Those reports say that most of the weapons used are not registered.

In 2010, a law has been passed in Kosovo sanctioning people who own weapons without permission.

This law has reportedly been drafted in different European conventions about the use of firearms, authorities in the order have said.

Some of the reasons Kosovo citizens carry weapons are the consequences of post-war, fear, distrust in Kosovo institutions and, as one of the reasons, tradition is under way.