Albania Set to Destroy Deadly Military Chemicals

Albania held a ceremony on Tuesday marking a fresh milestone in the process of getting rid of hundreds of tons of deadly chemicals stockpiled by the country's dictator, Enver Hoxha.

In a ceremony held in the port city of Durres, a fresh shipment of 160 tons of napalm components - aluminum oxide produced in country and xylenol imported from China - were packaged for shipment to France for final disposal.

Defence Ministry officials told BIRN the base in Qafe-Molle near Tirana still houses chemicals ready for destruction, which they are committed to completing in 2017.

"The Albanian Armed Forces administer another 150 tons of chemicals stock, which are safely placed in Qafe-Molle, away from inhabited areas," the military said.

They have assured that no hazardous military chemicals remain in any other military bases near inhabited areas in Albania.

The old ammunition was inherited from the Cold War period, when Albania's Stalinist dictator, Enver Hoxha, decided to pack the country with ammunition and chemicals, mostly bought from China and Russia, to fend off a feared invasion.

Albania's Defence Ministry on Tuesday said that in collaboration with OSCE in Tirana they had up to now destroyed 300 tons of hazardous military chemicals left over from the Communist era.

The OSCE has been assisting Albania in its efforts to safely destroy surplus conventional ammunition and dangerous toxic chemicals since 2008.

"In May 2015, [OSCE] helped destroy 116 tons of hazardous chemicals. Before that, it helped to dispose of 60 tons of a toxic rocket fuel component known as mélange and 120 tons of dichloromethane and provided equipment for the destruction of surplus ammunition," a statement read.

The process of getting rid of this...