UN announces end of heavy weapons collection in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley6 March 2005 – The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) today announced the completion of heavy weapons collection in the Panjshir Valley, declaring the area free of all known working or repairable forms of those arms.
UNAMA spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said the remaining heavy weapons were gathered from the area on Friday by Afghanistan's New Beginnings Programme. Originally the region was surveyed to have 110 heavy weapons but five additional ones were found as part of the collection process.
Nationwide 8,630 of those arms have been taken, the spokesman told a press briefing in Kabul.
“As of today all Heavy Weapons in seven regions of Afghanistan have been collected and secured. The seven regions are Kabul, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Gardez, Mazar-e Sharif 7 Corps, Bamyan, and now Panjshir,” Mr. de Almeida e Silva said.
He added that about 60 heavy weapons are still circulating in Shindand and Farah, while the Kunduz region has 160 to 165 of them. The New Beginnings Programme plans to tackle those areas in the coming weeks.
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