Thousands of weapons seized and destroyed

About 1,000 mobile rockets and other weapons have been collected from Yemeni citizens by security authorities and destroyed by the government, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Rashad al-Alimi on Tuesday. The Yemeni government’s plan to collect heavy-duty and medium-sized weapons from citizens began in earnest earlier this year. Al-Alimi, who spoke to the Shura council, said that the weapons were destroyed under the supervision of international experts. “Those weapons in hands of citizens gave the Yemeni government and the international community much anxiety, because it was created a dangerous situation for the airlines,” he said. 

“We are continuing to collect the weapons, and we have anther plan to limit the carrying of personal guns in the main cities, and it will reach the other areas soon,” he added. Some dramatic seizures were made this week. Security authorities in al-Mahara governorate in eastern Yemen discovered weapons stockpiles on Wednesday, after security forces raided a cave where they found more than 158 mortar rounds.  Colonel Ahmed Saleh, Director of Criminal Investigation in the province, said that the security forces uncovered the weapons cache after the arrest of a gang of 11 people who were stealing bullets and hiding them. 

“After we got the weapons, we followed-up on the rest of the gang members, and are still conducting investigations on the case,” Saleh said. “The preliminary investigations indicated that this gang aimed to sell these bullets for financial gain only, and that they are not tied to any violent organized group,” he said.  The rest of the gang members are expected to be apprehended in the next 48 hours, he said Wednesday. Authorities think that there may be six or seven more men involved, in addition to the 11 already in custody. Some of these men may be soldiers, he said. 

Colonel Mubarak Hussein, security director in al-Mahara, said that the gang had stolen the bullets from arms stores belonging to the security forces. “They purpose of this collecting of bullets was merely to sell them, and none of the gang members carried out armed actions against any state or against citizens,” he said.  “Investigations are under way to resolve the rest of the details of the case,” he said.  A recent report submitted to the Parliament by the Ministry of the Interior shows that weapons-related crimes have been increasing in Yemen.  

“The crime rate is increasing wherever more weapons are carried,” the report said. According to the report, there were around 32,000 crimes from 2004 to 2006. Weapons were involved in more than 77 percent of them. In that same time period, there were 23,577 deaths and injuries in Yemen that involved weapons. Some 85 percent of those died because of guns.  According to the report of the Interior Ministry, in the last three years, security agencies have seized numerous firearms. These weapons included 13,106 rifles, 3,115 handguns, 251 bombs, and 204 other weapons. They have also seized 41,573 bullets.  The Ministries of Defense and the Interior recently began collecting medium-sized and heavy-duty weapons from the citizens.

In the context of the campaign, the ministry has collected rockets, ammunition, tanks, antiaircraft missiles, explosives, detonators, and anti-personnel mines.  When the government seizes these weapons from people, they compensate them for them from the state treasury. They will continued to pay for arms turned in in the next six months. After that, they will begin to take weapons from citizens by force.   The government as already spent billions of riyals on this  effort to eliminate arms trade, and on the reduction of the possession and carrying of arms deployed in the parts of Yemen most beset by violence, particularly the tribal areas.   Large parts of these tribal areas are still outside the scope of government control.

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