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SEESAC. 2004 ‘Gun Destruction in Montenegro - 2003.’ SEESAC Republic of Montenegro - 2004 SALW Survey, pp. 8-9. Belgrade: South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC). 31 July

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What is unclear is what is happening to the weapons previously held by the 10,000 defence force reservists who are now said to have been decommissioned, reintegrated into the growing border police or in state security forces. While some officials claim that their weapons have been surrendered and are now stockpiled and secured by MUP(25) , focus group results suggest that the process was not as systematic as one would hope, which implies that a number of SALW given by the government to reservists have not been recovered. Informed members of the international community suggest that there are currently about 7,500 armed officers in Montenegro, which would include reintegrated defence force reservists.

In any case, the SALW stockpiles under the responsibility of the MUP are likely to be similar to the situation in 2001, as the restructuring and downsizing of forces does not systematically imply the destruction of surplus weapons. Some preliminary moves have been taken towards that direction, however, with a first destruction campaign on 27 May 2003 destroying a total of 5,027 SALW at the Niksic industrial complex. These included 1,770 SALW collected from civilians during the 'farewell to arms' amnesty campaign, the other 3,200 presumably coming from state owned surplus stockpiles or weapons seized by the police from criminals. The downsizing of MUP forces, however, implies a much larger number of surplus SALW, which need adequate storage and destruction.

[MUP = Ministry of Internal Affairs
SALW = Small Arms and Light Weapons]

Notes
25) Claiming that only 10,000 - 12,000 weapons were distributed to reservists is most likely an underestimate, as some reports suggest that the size of the Reserve Defence Force reached up to 25,000 'well-armed' volunteers. However, as many of the weapons distributed to civilians were never returned to MUP , many of the small arms distributed are taken into account under the 'civilian stockpile' estimate above. As a r

ID: Q15971

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