The acting Commissioner General of the National Police, Mary Gahonzire, has hailed the new method of disposing off illicit small arms using a JMC hydraulic cutting and crushing machine saying it has led to the efficient destruction of 25,000 arms.

She said this Tuesday during her visit to Kanombe Military Barracks to appraise the extent of the exercise.

Gahonzire said that the new method that replaced the previous one of burning the arms and it was adopted as one of the best ways to protect the environment as stipulated in the May 2005 Nairobi Protocol.

The protocol that brings together 11 member countries from the Great Lakes Region, the horn of Africa and bordering states is aimed at prevention, control, and reduction of small arms and light weapons in the sub-region.

According to police, over 31,000 small arms and light weapons have been destroyed countrywide since the protocol was signed.

Gahonzire added that destroying the arms, most of them captured from insurgents and the ex-Far militias, is a step towards attainment of total security, not only in the country, but the sub-region.

Meanwhile, during her visit to the barracks, Gahonzire officially handed over the arms marking machine to Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) that will be used to label new arms.

Brig Gen Augustine Turagara, the head of Kanombe barracks, received the machine on behalf of the RDF.

Turagara thanked the national police for its commitment in ensuring law and order and security in the country, stressing that marking the arms will help in tracing and record-keeping.

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