The Southeast Europe Women Police Officers Network (SEE WPON) held its launch meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria on 2-3 December 2009. The meeting, the third in a series, was organized by the Southeast Police Chiefs Association (SEPCA) and supported by UNDP/SEESAC, the OSCE Mission in Serbia and the ODIHR. The meeting was attended by representatives of police services from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Romania and Serbia. Representatives of the International Association of Women Police (IAWP), the EU Police Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina (EUPM),  the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) and UNDP also took part in the meeting.  ... read more

Convertible Weapons in the Western Balkans is the result of a comparative study which was carried out to determine the extent to which convertible weapons are addressed in existing legislation and the extent to which this corresponds with new European Union regulations. In 2008, the European Parliament and the European Council adopted Directive 2008/51/EC, which amended Council Directive 91/477/EEC on control of the acquisition and possession of weapons. One of the amendments included within the definition of a firearm non-lethal weapons which could be converted to fire real ammunition in order to curtail the problem of transfer and modification of convertible weapons within the European Union.  ... read more

On Saturday 21 November 2009 at the "Centar za reciklazu" in Zeleznik, Belgrade, the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia and SEESAC implemented a joint project for the destruction of 10,000 surplus and collected weapons. The destruction event was attended by H.E. Mr Haakon Blankenborg, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway, Mr. Efrem Radev, Senior Expert at the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), diplomatic and defence representatives as well as representatives of the Ministry of Interior.  ... read more

The first meeting of the regional information exchange process on arms export controls took place on 12 November 2009 in Belgrade, Serbia, with the participation of delegations from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.  ... read more

The Republic of Montenegro has produced their third national report on export and import of arms, military equipment and dual-use goods covering the period 01 Jan - 31 Dec 2008.  ... read more

SEESAC has supported the national export control authorities in the Western Balkans since 2006. The software for arms exports control provides national authorities with a practical tool for record-keeping, analyses and report generation. The software has been built upon the initial realease of the Arms Exports Report Template. The software can be customised upon request.  ... read more

The industry outreach workshop on licensing procedures of import and export of arms, military equipment and dual-use goods was held on 15^th October 2009, in the "Sava Center" in Belgrade. The workshop was hosted by the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development (MERD) of the Republic of Serbia. The event was part of the SEESAC's assistance programme to MERD.  ... read more

SEESAC is initiating the Regional Arms Exports Information Exchange Process by hosting a series of meetings where government representatives will discuss various topics including the existing export embargoes; national export policies for particular destinations; types of goods exported to specific destinations; legal regulations of information on licence denials; and the criteria for licence denials.  ... read more

On 06 October 2009 the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Moldova destroyed 2,374 small arms and light weapons that were confiscated or voluntary surrendered since 2007.

This is the third destruction project implemented by SEESAC in Moldova with the support of the UNDP Country Office. In 2005 and 2007 SEESAC has organized the destruction of 3,700 weapons.

Mr Victor Catana, Minister of the Interior, launched the destruction event. The weapons have been destroyed through melting in the ARALIT factory in Chisinau.  ... read more

The joint project between SEESAC and the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia for disposal of surplus and confiscated weapons resulted in the destruction of 17,000 small arms and light weapons. The destruction took place on 03 October 2009 at the premises of the Recycling Center in the Belgrade suburb of Zeleznik. The weapons destroyed included machine guns, submachine guns, granade launchers, carabines, hunting rifles, pistols and air rifles.  ... read more