The process of collection of illegally kept small arms from the population of the Republic of South Ossetia, reported the Interior Minister Valery Valiev.
"We are carrying out the measures on collection of illegally kept arms in accordance with elaborated program. Citizens of the Republic have been lately handing over submachine guns, rifles and explosives every week. There are honest residents, who kept the arms in safe places, but some were quite negligent", said Valiev.
He also reported that the law enforcement bodies have the information where and in what amounts the arms are stored: "However, the term of implementation identified by RSO President Kokoity for volunteer handover of arms do not allow the law enforcement bodies to initiate more tough measures to collect the weapons".
"We are planning to purchase special equipment for ballistic examination and we will allow bearing arms those people who are not registered at psychiatric institutions. It does not refer to rifled weapons", said the Minister.
Valiev also noted that the population of South Ossetia had not yet got used to the feeling of security and therefore, they are still unwilling to hand over their arms. The Minister expressed his hope that later the people would come to the feeling of security and it wouldn’t be necessary to keep arms.
