| Mwanza to burn 4,000 illegal weapons | Send to a friend |
| Saturday, 07 August 2010 10:14 |
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The Police Force is finalising plans to destroy 4,000 illegal firearms confiscated throughout the country. The Mwanza Regional Police Commander, Mr Simon Sirro, said the illegal weapons were confiscated in Mara, Shinyanga, Tabora, Rukwa, Mbeya, Ruvuma and Mwanza while other weapons were from the Tabora wildlife department. He told journalists yesterday that the exercise would be conducted at Nyamagana grounds in Mwanza. “The exercise would be conducted in public in order to encourage people not only to step up the fight against illegal weapons but also win their confidence that criminals would no longer be in possession of the confiscated weapons,” he said. According to Mr Sirro, it will be the second time for the illegal weapons to be destroyed in Mwanza. Similar exercise was conducted in 2003, in which 921 weapons were destroyed. Mr Godfrey Bagonza, the coordinator of the exercise, said the government of Japan through its programme; Regional Centre on Small Arms (RESCA) financed the exercise. He said there were 315,393 firearms earmarked for destruction while 55,300 others have already been destroyed from RESCA’s member countries of Rwanda, Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The exercise is in line with several international treaties against illegal weapons to which Tanzania is a signatory. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
