Citation(s) from the GunPolicy.org literature library

Hadzovic, Denis, Armin Krzalic and Sanja Mihajlovic. 2013 ‘Action Programmes.’ Small Arms Survey 2010/2011: Bosnia and Herzegovina, p. 68. Belgrade: South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC), European Union, UN Development Programme. 20 November

Relevant contents

4.4. Action Programmes

Numerous action programmes for combating SALW have been implemented in the past with the aim of reducing the number of illegal SALW and increasing the security of people throughout the country. Such programmes involved amnesties, collections and the destruction of SALW as well as the organisation of award games and awareness raising campaigns.

Operation Harvest

Operation Harvest appears to be a very successful programme of action implemented by international military forces in BiH. This programme was initiated by SFOR at the beginning of 1998 and was continued by EUFOR with the objective to collect and or confiscate illegal weapons found during searches. Through this programme, over the period August 2003 to August 2006, SFOR and EUFOR collected 15,151 SALW possessed illegally by civilians. Besides SFOR and EUFOR, Operation Harvest was actively implemented by the police forces of BiH. According to available information, the following amounts of SALW were collected: 818,035 rounds of ammunition of various calibre, 16,535 mines and other explosive devices, 9,361 hand-grenades, 4,321 long-barrelled weapons, 2,118 pistols, 1,772 grenades and 587 hand held rocket launchers. Also on this list were mine throwers, recoilless cannons, two aerial bombs and other types of weapons and ammunition. During the amnesty 82% of these weapons were voluntarily surrendered by the population.

SALW and Ammunition Destruction

SALW and ammunition destruction programmes have been implemented by various actors, but, for the most part, SFOR and EUFOR destroyed the most SALW collected during Operation Harvest. Counting from when the first Operation Harvest, which took place in 1998, up until the present some 60,000 individual weapons were collected from the local population and later destroyed. At their training grounds, civil protection services in Bosnia and Herzegovina destroyed a huge amount of unexploded ordnance (UXO) confiscated from the civilian population. The most popular and successful SALW destruction programme was the UNDP programme implemented within the frame of the SAC BiH Project. This programme resulted in the destruction of more than 95,000 individual SALW and 4,800 tons of unstable ammunition removed from the entities military stockpiles…

Give away Weapons and Win Tools

This programme was a weapons and ammunition collection action conducted within the territory of the Municipalities of Novo (New) Sarajevo and Istočna (East) Ilidža. The action lasted for one month, beginning on the 5 November and ending on the 5 December 2006; the programme obtained excellent results. This action was a pilot project aimed at enhanced security for citizens and the development of their awareness on the menace of illegally possessed SALW in BiH.

The small arms collection action and award game Give away Weapons and Win Tools was organised by the UNDP in collaboration with its partners: the Centre for Security Studies, Europlakat, the department stores Robot Commerce and Tomašević, the entity ministries of police and local communities.

The action and award game lasted for one month and during this period citizens in the two municipalities surrendered a large number of small arms, ammunition mines and other explosive devices. As indicated, within the framework of this action citizens surrendered 332 individual weapons, including pistols, rifles, hand-grenades and wasps as well as 4,975 rounds of ammunition. As part of the action citizens received various rewards: scooters, DVD players, refrigerators, electrical ovens, televisions and other valuable kitchen equipment…

[SALW = Small Arms and Light Weapons; BiH = Bosnia and Herzegovina; SFOR = Stabilization Force; EUFOR = European Rapid Operational Force; SAC BiH = Small Arms Control and Reduction Project in BiH; UNDP = United Nations Development Programme; DVD = Digital Versatile Disc]

ID: Q11276

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