Defence minister quits over Albania army base blast

TIRANA, March 17 (Reuters) - Albania's Defence Minister resigned on Monday, taking "moral responsibility" for a huge explosion at an ammunition dump that killed 16 people and injured more than 300 at the weekend.

"Although I have no personal responsibility, I handed over my resignation to the prime minister," Defence Minister Fatmir Mediu said. "My resignation is an act of political reflection. These were the most difficult 72 hours of my life."

The string of blasts started when workers were moving stocks of old Chinese and Soviet shells stored at the base, a collection point for the arsenal amassed by the communist-era dictatorship preparing for an invasion that never came.

Ten people are still missing, presumed dead. The explosions razed most of the buildings at the base on the outskirts of the capital Tirana and created huge craters -- up to 50 metres wide and 20 metres deep.

Some 4,000 people were evacuated from the area and hundreds of homes were damaged. Albanian media reported that untrained men and women from surrounding villages, even teenagers, worked at the plant for very low wages, and criticised setting up such a collection centre near inhabited areas.

Residents of the village of Gerdec and the nearby town of Vore are also blaming the government and protested by briefly blocking traffic on a main highway near the capital.

Albania has been trying for years to dismantle the obsolete stock, estimated at 100,000 tonnes, set as one of the conditions for joining NATO. It hopes for an invitation in April.

Berisha said the membership bid should not be affected by the accident. He denied the government was responsible, saying the dismantling was handled by a private U.S. company.

The opposition said the state had to restore order and take responsibility, even if that means resigning.

"They are treating this government barbarism as a natural disaster," said Edi Rama, head of the opposition Socialists.

In the fields around the blast site, little red flags sank in the earth marked the presence of shells. Thousands of big and small munitions, some unexploded, littered the area, along with the carcasses of farm animals. (Writing by Ellie Tzortzi; Editing by Matthew Jones)

The company is identified in the US Embassy’s statement as Southern Ammunition Company, Inc. This company apparently subcontracted to Albanian nationals. Here is the embassy’s statement:

U.S. Embassy Statement on Gërdec Explosions (March 17, 2008)
The U.S. Embassy first takes the opportunity to extend its sincere condolences and support to the Albanian people, especially the victims, their families, and those who have been affected directly by Saturday’s tragedy in Gërdec. Our hearts and sympathy are with you.
The U.S. Embassy has provided or coordinated the following assistance since the explosions occurred:
· Within three hours of the explosion, the Embassy provided $1,000 of needed medical supplies to Albania’s military hospital trauma center, purchased through USAID funding.
· American crisis management experts with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Navy are consulting closely with the Ministry of Interior Crisis Management Center
· A ten-person team of retired US Army Special Forces personnel with extensive experience in EOD/demolitions and emergency medical and operational support provided assistance to the MoD at the explosion site, assisting to establish the Operations Center, media center and field hospital and helping to coordinate the operations on location.
· The European Command has tasked its naval component to send an assessment team consisting of highly-trained experts in weapons destruction to determine what additional assets may be provided.
· We are exploring with the Government of Albania what additional assistance may be needed and will seek to provide additional assistance as requested.
We note that some news agencies have mistakenly reported that a U.S. Government-sponsored munitions disposal project was underway at the depot that suffered several explosions on March 15. We would like to clarify that the U.S. Government has not assisted the Ministry of Defense with munitions disposal at that particular storage facility. Although the U.S. Government has partnered successfully with the Albanian Government on several munitions disposal projects previously, there are currently no such joint projects underway in Albania. We understand from a March 15 government statement that the GOA had contracted with a private American company, Southern Ammunition Company, Inc. (SACI) of South Carolina, to assist with munitions disassembly at the depot. The contract is not sponsored by the U.S. Government.
We wish to reiterate our concern and sympathies for all those affected
by this tragic incident.

It is obvious from the video that individual rounds were going off - sounds like popcorn. Then a very massive single explosion. The large explosion is bigger than anything they could possibly have in their inventory. This leads one to believe that they were removing high explosive (HE) materials from each shell and storing it in some sort of large container, which is what went up and made such a huge mess of things. It was a very bad move for them to 1. store removed HE so close to the dismantling location and 2. to have such a large quantity of HE in one place. It should have been burned in small lots during the course of the process.

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