Kazakh region destroys ammunition scrap dumps

Kazakh region destroys ammunition scrap dumps

Channel 31 TV, Almaty
27 Mar 06

[Presenter] The Ministry of Defence has cleared the artillery scrap
heaps in the outskirts of the town of Balkhash in central Karaganda
Region. In all, locals had illegally extracted 370 tonnes of artillery
scrap from old ammunition depots at Tokrau station. Bullets and
bombs fell into civilian hands after conflagration at army depots
in 2001. There were tens of thousands tonnes of ammunition that were
brought back from Afghanistan and Armenia. The locals used to take them
apart and sell to scrap merchants. The explosive scrap has already
caused several deaths this year. Five locals died in February when
disassembling bombs. A total of 40 tonnes of ammunition parts were
found at a local scrap merchant’s. By the defence minister’s decree,
a working group was sent to Balkhash District to ensure civilians’
safety and to gather up all the scrap.

[Bulat Darbekov, Deputy Minister of Defence, chair of staff commanders’
committee, captioned] Presently all fragments of ammunition have been
taken out to arsenals and later will be destroyed.