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Bureau of Political-Military Affairs Small Arms Representative from the Office of the Defense Attache at the U.S. Embassy in Tirana views Albanian arms prior to destruction. U.S. Government Documents UN Documents Regional Information Conferences and Reports Related Sites Additional Readings On September 7, 2000, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Eric Newsom joined Albania's Minister of Defense, Ilir Gjoni, as well as Norwegian and German diplomats to sign a memorandum of understanding on the destruction of over 130,000 small arms and light weapons in Albania. According to the memorandum, Albania will destroy by the end of 2000, with the help of the United States, Norway, and Germany, all weapons collected from the civilian population in the aftermath of the 1997 crisis. In addition to these weapons, all weapons collected by the Albanian Government in the future along with surplus military stocks of small arms also will be destroyed. Albania's small arms problem stems from the crisis of March 1997, during which time nearly 600,000 small arms and light weapons and hundreds of tons of ammunition were looted from government arsenals around the country. In addition to contributing to a wave of violent crime in Albania, extensive reporting by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and independent observers indicate that many of these weapons, smuggled into Kosovo, helped ignite the conflict there. [complete text] MAIN STATE PM HOME