Prishtina, 16 December 2009 - Organized by Saferworld and FIQ in coordination with the Department for Public Security of the Kosovo Ministry of Internal Affairs, around 40 participants from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), Kosovo Police, District Prosecutor’s Office, a senior UNDP consultant of the Parliamentary Commission for Internal and Security Affairs, EULEX Police, ICO, UNDP, OSBE, ICITAP, Hunters’ Federation, Hunters’ Association “Kaprolli” from Prishtina, NGOs: KMDLNJ, Kosovo Centre for Gender Studies, Kosovo Institute for Media and Policy (KIMP), POL, ATRC, American University in Kosovo (AUK), Ferizaj Students’ Council, and representatives from the community of village Gërmovë, discussed on challenges in implementing of the law on weapons, which was approved by the Assembly several weeks ago.

Astrit istrefi from Saferworld organization presented main findings for small and light weapons (SLW) from the latest research developed during September-October 2009 and offered some comparative analysis on earlier research done during December 2008-January 2009 and the research done in February 2008.
Kadrush Koliqi, Head inspector at the Department for Public Security of the MIA emphasized that the Law is an advances one, is in harmony with the EU directives, and offers information on MIA being in the process of drafting administrative instructions in order to start implementing the Law on Weapons. Mr. Koliqi mentioned that the strategy on control and collection of weapons has been approved and the institutions have begun implementing the strategy. Then, he read selected parts of the law and answered many questions of the participants.
The most frequent questions were about legalization, existence or nonexistence if action plans for implementing strategies, import of the weapons from outside the country and border controls, purchases in the black market and legalizations, extension of authorization for hunting weapons, introduction of guns shops into the market etc.
Some of the participants have requested that the law begins implementing immediately, since gaps of the UNMIK regulation have been harmful, and most frequently, the blame had been put on the Kosovo citizens and institutions.  
In general, the debate included very useful discussions, with a presence of open critics towards some organizations that published certain statistics on illegal weapon possession, which according to the participants, are overblown, inexact and deliberate statistics, used for political reasons. 
There were explanations that the research was based more on citizens’ perceptions and less on official statistics and on the reduction of illegal possession of weapons that is related to confiscations by the Kosovo Police that is around 2000 confiscated weapons during each year and voluntary delivery during amnesty.
 
Other discussions included different viewpoints with regard to relation between weapon possession with tradition and culture. In most cases, participants mentioned that the issue of weapon possession and presence is related to the war in Kosovo, being the cause and consequence. Participants also declared that for decades, weapons were means of survival, especially for Albanians. There were also opinions that the possession of weapons is very much related to the tradition, besides war.  
There were concerns with regard to criteria of the UNMIK regulation for authorization for hunting weapons, such as granting authorizations for hunting weapons purchased in the black market, without asking for origin of the weapon. Another concern is the irresponsibility of hunters and damages caused to the national wealth such as fauna. According to the participants, this shall cause unrecoverable damage, if implementation of the law is delayed.
A debate on the same topic was also held in Gjilan on 10 December 2009, in Prizren on 22 December and in Ferizaj on 23 December and later in other cities.