Balkans: November 1, 2003

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: The Macedonian government is once again trying to collect illegal weapons held by civilians. This is code language for weapons held by potential guerrillas. The governments latest policy: a 45-day amnesty period to turn in weapons. The EUs peacekeeping force will coordinate the weapons turn-in. The amnesty period will run until December 15. How many weapons are classified as illegal? Ex-Yugoslav Army depots were looted in the mid-1990s. Another source of arms is Albania, where one estimate had 300,000 AK-47 type automatic rifles may have disappeared from depots. Macedonia is looking for several hundred thousand small arms.