UNMIK ON AIR
19 November 2003
(By Valon Syla)
Slug: Hunting weapons are being
licensed in Kosovo even though hunting seasons are forbidden.
Hello and welcome at UNMIK on Air.
Hunting is one of the oldest
activities in history and has been a source of feeding for ages. Although in
many countries hunting is a very popular activity, in Kosovo it was forbidden
six years before the 1999 conflict, when the Serbian police seized many hunting
weapons at the time, since then the hunting season stopped in Kosovo. Anyway,
today hunters have their own legalized hunting weapons.
UNMIK police says that opening a
hunting season at this time means only trouble as it could have an impact on
the overall security level in Kosovo. Derek Chappell spokesman for UNMIK police
explains:
Derek Chappell: We don’t want people out wandering through the countryside with guns
shooting at wild life, we have a problem right now with weapons and violence,
the society is not ready yet to resume normality in the sense of a hunting
season. Imagine a Serb in the village and Albanians are shooting pigeons in
that area, what would a Serb think, he would probably take his gun and return
the fire and the same thing might happen with a Serb in an Albanian area. So
opening a hunting season now is just asking for trouble.
UNMIK Police is licensing Hunting
and Recreational weapons, while UNDP considers that around 400.000 weapons are
in the hands of Kosovans; and KFOR Spokesman Wing Commander Chris Thompson says
KFOR peacekeepers seize every week a considerable amount of weaponry
Chris Thompson: We have collected around 18000 illegal weapons, those weapons have all
been destroyed. If you look at the weekly figures that KFOR covers, they are
always very static. Normally about twenty rifles, 5 or 6 pistols, normally 2000
rounds of ammunition and a number of heavier weapons that we recover is again
fairly static. So my feeling is that we are continuing to collect but there are
still a considerable number of weapons out there.”
If Kosovo has such an enormous
number of weapons, then why is UNMIK police continuing to legalize hunting and
recreational weapons? Derek Chappell says the police are trying to respect the
peoples culture of gun ownership.
UNMIK police understands the tradition of hunting, says Chappell, and they don’t
want to insult people by taking the law to an extreme by seizing every body’s
hunting weapons.
Derek Chappell: At some point in the
future, this is going to be a normal society, and five years ago there was a
war going on, so the time is not right now. Nobody needs a Kalashnikov or a
hand grenade at home. But at some point in the future people should be able to
use shotguns and hunting rifles for normal social hunting. People fish and hunt
in normal societies.
Shaqir Krasniqi is the head of
Kosovo’s Hunters Federation, which unites 28 different hunting associations in
Kosovo working as members of this federation and all together share one
regulation.
Shaqir
Krasniqi: Every association has its
own hunting territory, until today we were working in one municipality with one
association, and the association has (uses) the territory of that
municipality.”
Kosovo’s
Hunters Federation does not agree with the way weapons are being legalized.
Krasniqi explains that to legalize a hunting weapon in Kosovo you do not need
to be a member of any association at all and he adds this could complicate
things in the future.
Shaqir
Krasniqi: Nobody
is asking about the origin of all hunting weapons that are being registered in
Kosovo. So all these weapons got in to Kosovo in different ways, and so they
get sold illegally in cafeterias and different places. So the weapon was bought
illegally and the people afterwards apply to legalize that hunting weapon.”
Still, hunting in Kosovo
remains illegal and this has had an impact on the wild life. During these last
four years after the conflict, wild boars and wolfs have increased in numbers,
and the Hunting Federation considers this will have an impact in agriculture.
Shaqir
Krasniqi: The
number of wild boars have increased significantly, it is out of control,
according to the ministry of agriculture this number has reached around 10 000
boars in Kosovo. This number should be reduced around 3000.
According
to Kosovan hunters the number of wild boars and wolfs should be reduced. At the
same time UNMIK Police forbids hunting seasons; but the hunters insist that at
least a cull should be organized to reduce their numbers and prevent the
destruction of more agricultural areas in Kosovo. So the question is to hunt or
not to hunt.