Physical Security and Stockpile Management Workshop

20/03/2015

From 16–18 March 2015, the ITF attended the “Physical Security and Stockpile Management Workshop” organized under the auspices of RACVIAC in Rakitje, Croatia.

From 16–18 March 2015, ITF representatives attended the “Physical Security and Stockpile Management Workshop” organized under the auspices of RACVIAC – Centre for Security cooperation (Rakitje, Croatia), in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Defence and Sports of the Republic of Austria and the Bundeswehr Verification Centre of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The workshop provided a venue for discussion among professionals and experts in the field of Physical Security and Stockpile Management (PSSM) and Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) in Southeast Europe – representatives of national armed forces and ministries of defence, commanders of storage sites, academics, as well as relevant non-governmental in international organizations. Mr Mitja Hegler, ITF Project Manager raised the importance of regional cooperation in South East Europe and presented the experiences ITF has in facilitating the technical cooperation on Explosive Hazards response and reduction among Central Asia States.

The purpose of the workshop was to discuss the possibilities of cooperation in order to improve the management, systematic, and infrastructural aspects of PSSM among the countries in the region. In this regard, an evaluation of the possibility of launching and managing a common network of experts for the purpose of regional cooperation in PSSM capacity building has been carried out. Such a network would be facilitated by the OSCE assistance mechanism, promoting government-to-government (G2G) dialogue and national ownership.

The national representatives, experts in the field, and representatives of relevant organizations had a common view and opinion that cooperation in tackling the PSSM issues would be necessary and expressed interest in further elaboration and dialogue on the matter.

Last but not least, the participants of the workshop had the opportunity to attend a field visit, where a demonstration of use of new technologies after unplanned explosions at ammunition sites was carried out. The demonstration was performed by the DOK-ING Ltd., a Croatian company.