UNMIK/PR/509
PRISTINA--- A new weapons regulation has been introduced to take out of circulation the huge quantity of weaponry left in Kosovo since the conflict almost two years ago. Violators of the new regulation may be convicted to imprisonment for as long as ten years.
With the implementation of the new law, persons in the possession of a weapon will be liable to arrest, trial and prosecution with the exception of those holding an ‘UNMIK Police- or KFOR Weapons Authorisation Card’, or ‘defined hunting and recreational weapons such as bolt action rifles and shotguns.’
Weapons are defined in the regulation as any instrument designed or useable to inflict harm, and includes all kinds of guns, grenades and rockets, blank firing and replica weapons, tear gas and pepper spray, as well as daggers.
A full weapons amnesty will be proclaimed for the period 30 April to 4 June 2001, where people can hand over their weapons without fear of any prosecution. The procedure will be announced in an information campaign to begin shortly. From 5 June onwards the law will be enforced strictly, and convictions for the illegal possession of weapons can be as high as ten years imprisonment, and fines up to 20,000 DM.
There is a pressing need to deliver to the judicial system robust penalties that can be applied against those persons who continue to hold illegal weapons. Despite frequent security force searches, a large number of weapons continue to be seized in Kosovo.
The law will recognise, in line with comparable legislation elsewhere in Europe, that vulnerable people, especially prominent political figures, must continue to enjoy a certain measure of protection that includes permission for them or their bodyguards to carry certain weapons. UNMIK Police are, according to the regulation, authorised to issue Weapon Authorisation Cards to those people who are found eligible by virtue of risks or threats to them by a police-run Threat Assessments Committee.