The Minister of the Interior, Taulant Balla, together with the Head of the OSCE Presence in Tirana, Clarisse Pasztory, and representatives of several civil society organizations, signed a Memorandum of Understanding committing the parties to co-operate in the implementation of national awareness-raising campaigns aimed at preventing the risks posed by the phenomenon of illegal possession of weapons. The signing of this Memorandum of Understanding is timely as the OSCE, in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior, is about to launch two awareness-raising campaigns. These campaigns aim to raise awareness among young girls and boys, as well as men and women, on issues related to the dangers and misuse of firearms, which in most cases are closely linked to gender-based violence. As part of these campaigns, the OSCE, in co-operation with the Ministry of the Interior and the State Police, intends to develop joint activities with civil society, which will extend to schools and communities in the areas already identified in the strategy.

The Memorandum was signed by the Minister of the Interior, Taulant Balla; the Acting Head of the OSCE Presence, Clarisse Pasztory; the Executive Director of the Youth Congress, Dafina Peci; the Director of the National Office of Terre des Hommes, Enkelejda Kallçiu; the National Director of the Gender Alliance Center for Development, Mirela Arqimandriti; and Lumjana Cenaj on behalf of the Women’s Center for Development and Culture in Albania. This Memorandum remains an open platform for those organizations that wish to join the initiative and support the Ministry of Interior and the Albanian State Police in the implementation of the Strategy and Action Plan for Awareness and Communication on the Misuse of Small Arms and Light Weapons. In his speech, Minister Balla said that the unauthorized possession of weapons is attacked every day, “we will do everything, with more commitment than before, so that this crime, which is open to the law and our society, is fought by the State Police with determination, every day”, said Balla.

Interior Minister Taulant Balla’s speech:

The Memorandum that we are signing today is a very important act in deepening our joint efforts to reduce the risk posed by the possession of illegal weapons, focusing in particular on small arms and light weapons. This Memorandum establishes, in an institutional cooperation plan, the commitment of each of us, starting from today, to carry out a national awareness campaign aimed at preventing a possible danger that threatens every citizen from the phenomenon of carrying weapons without authorization.

In the last 300 days, the State Police have carried out a significant number of police operations against the phenomenon of illegal possession of weapons, mainly within the framework of the national operation “Rule of Law”.
I would like to inform you that there were more than 415 firearms seized as material evidence and more than 500 cold weapons, which indicates a large presence of weapons in the hands of citizens, but which increases our commitment against the phenomenon of illegal possession of weapons, which remains one of the main sources of serious criminal events.

It is therefore very important to understand that the more we raise public awareness against the phenomenon of illegal possession of weapons, the fewer criminal incidents we will have, which are often accompanied by loss of life or injury. The truth is that recently we have seen a significant improvement in the number of deaths caused by the use of firearms, bringing Albania to the level of the European average. But my focus is on criminal incidents, which are also based on gender-based violence. If last year we had 35 deaths due to criminal incidents, 1/3 of them were family crimes. Now, if we look at the first 4 months of this year, it is more than 1/3.

These few figures are enough to understand the dimension of the causes of the phenomenon of carrying weapons without a permit, and the need to understand that this is a battle that neither the Minister of the Interior nor the State Police can win alone, but that it shows the need for much broader cooperation, with all partners working on a daily basis. The OSCE already has a consolidated tradition of cooperation in this confrontation and in this important challenge, but so do all the associations and non-governmental organizations of civil society and, above all, through you, the entire Albanian society.

I cannot conceal my pleasure at signing this memorandum, which is in line with several other public commitments made by the Ministry I head, which also has to do with the school safety package. In recent weeks and months, we have had cases where, thanks to the increased involvement of the State Police in the implementation of the measures that form part of the school safety package, we have found young people with weapons. Imagine if we had not reacted in time and such a weapon had been used, how many victims there would have been! We must also continue to intensify the implementation of this package, because if we look at the figures, we still have a large number of people arrested by the police for illegal possession of weapons, and these are very young people.

I emphasize once again that this is a battle that can and must be won with the commitment of the entire society. Albania inherited a situation unlike any other country because of what happened in 1997. In addition, if we look at the type of weapons that have been seized, most of them are weapons that were once part of the reserves, warehouses, and depots of the Albanian army. I think we are at the right moment to fight this phenomenon together.