OSCE works with Bosnia and Herzegovina to secure munitions sites
Two years ago at the Evangelos Florakis naval station in Cyprus, 98 containers of gunpowder exploded, killing 13 people and injuring 61. The containers were stored in the open, subject to intense summer heat.
More than 3,000 people were evacuated from the city of Ulyanovsk in central Russia in 2009, when a series of explosions rocked an ammunition depot. Two firefighters were killed, and eight persons were injured during the clean-up.
In March 2008, in Gërdec, Albania, 26 people were killed and more than 400 homes destroyed as a result of catastrophic explosions at a munitions demilitarization site. The damages were estimated at more than 29 million U.S. dollars.
No country is immune to accidental and uncontrolled explosions at munitions sites. This is a global problem, and the frequency of incidents is rising. According to Regional Approach to Stockpile Reduction, between 1998 and 2011, 43 individuals died and 435 were injured as a result of these types of incidents in South East Europe alone. Explosions can result from deterioration of components, improper handling, unauthorized access or theft, but also from natural causes such as fire, flood or lightning.
“One unstable piece of ammunition makes the entire storage site vulnerable. In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), we have been lucky to be spared the type of devastating accident at ammunition storage sites that have occurred in many OSCE participating States. We must overcome the hurdles that have slowed the destruction process, and reduce the risk of such an accident to the maximum extent. The people in BiH deserve this,” says the Head of the OSCE Mission to BiH, Fletcher M. Burton.
On 9 October 2013, the OSCE Mission to BiH will officially launch the project for Security Upgrade of Ammunition and Weapons Storage Sites in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SECUP BiH), which will refurbish the security infrastructure of four BiH Armed Forces prospective ammunition and weapons storage sites. The project aims to reduce the risk of weapons and ammunition proliferation and improve national standards for physical security and stockpile management.
Secure storage is essential for preventing unauthorized or accidental intrusion into the sites and theft of weapons, possibly resulting in their illegal proliferation and criminal use. The cost of failure to properly manage munitions storage sites is multifold. It can have a devastating effect on infrastructure, the environment and the local economy. Above all, it can claim human lives. In comparison, the cost of reducing the risk of incidents and improving the conditions of storage is minimal.
The SECUP BiH project is a small part of a larger BiH strategy for better management of surplus stockpiles of weapons and ammunition. The strategy is twofold: destruction of possibly unstable surplus ammunition on the one hand and introduction of technical improvements to stockpile management on the other. This includes improvements aimed at ensuring secure storage of the ammunition that has been declared necessary for the use of the Armed Forces BiH, such as those that will be provided through the SECUP-BiH project.
The project will be implemented over three years in partnership with the BiH Ministry of Defence and in co-ordination with international partners engaged in supporting arms control in BiH. It is funded by the governments of Switzerland, Turkey, Czech Republic, Denmark and Lichtenstein.
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