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Mozambique to Destroy Illegal Weapons: Defense Minister
Mozambican Defense Minister Tobias Dai has reiterated the government's commitment supporting civil society initiative to collect and destroy illegal weapons, reported the Mozambican newspaper "Noticias" on Tuesday.
Dai made the remarks on Monday in the district of Moamba, some 60 kilometers north-west of Maputo, where a number of weapons were destroyed during a symbolic ceremony to mark the "Day of Destruction of Light and Small Weapons", declared by the United Nations.
The minister said the fight against the trafficking and illegal use of weapons is part of the government's and civil society's efforts to consolidate peace and stability as an essential factor for the socio-economic development of the country.
The Moamba ceremony coincided with the opening of the United Nations conference on the illicit trade in small arms in New York, which seeks to adopt a program of action and a political declaration on stopping this lethal trade.
Dai recalled that since the General Peace Accord signed between the government and the former rebel movement Renamo in 1992, the country has been engaged in collecting and destroying all illegally held weapons.
To stop the lethal trade, the Mozambican and South African police, starting in 1995, launched a series of operations, code- named "Ranchel", to detect and dismantle arms caches.
The seven "Ranchel" operations are recommended by Emmanuel de Casterle, the resident representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Mozambique. He told the Moamba ceremony that Mozambique and South Africa "are the only countries worldwide involved in a joint project to identify and destroy illegal arms caches".
These joint operations have so far managed to uncover and dismantle 533 arms caches, and have destroyed 17,941 weapons of various types and 574,036 rounds of ammunition.
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