SARAJEVO, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Over 2,100 pieces of weapons were destroyed on Saturday in Banja Luka, a city located some 195 kilometers northwest of Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), local media Vijesti.ba reported.
During the operation organized by the country's Coordination Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons Control, 1,350 rifles and pistols, as well as 750 weapon components were destroyed.
"Destroyed weapons were mostly seized during police operations, and some of them were also voluntarily handed over by citizens of BiH," said Coordination Committee Chairman Ermin Pesto during the destruction process in the steel factory "Jelsingrad".
In the last four years, Pesto noted, some 18,000 pieces of weapons had been destroyed.
"There are a number of activities in BiH to combat the illegal arms trade, and one of them is the destruction of weapons which happened today," Pesto said.
Official statistics suggest that, after the country's 1992-1995 war, there are nearly 38,000 pieces of weapons that remain illegally in the public domain, the Europan Union (EU) delegation stated last year.
Weapons destruction is one of the prerequisites of the EU Directives that need to be fulfilled in order to bring the country closer to the EU membership.
Handing over, collecting and destroying weapons and related ammunitions is one of the important strategic goals of the document Strategy for Small Arms and Light Weapons Control in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2016 to 2020.
The weapons destruction action was also organized by the United Nations Development Program in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNDP BiH) and the Southeastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC). Enditem
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