laststandonzombieisland

Albania, former bastion of Maoist Communism in Europe, has an ammunition problem. You see the former beloved ruler for life, Enver Hoxha, was just a tad paranoid. He was born in what was part of the old Ottoman Empire, and saw at one time or another Austrians, Serbs, Italians, Germans, Greeks, and Soviets occupy or pass through his country. Little Albania, home to just about three million people, was a non-aligned Communist country for a large part of the Cold War. This meant it was alienated and possibly threatened by both NATO and/or the Warsaw Pact, not to mention a very finicky Yugoslavia led by Marshal Tito to the north. Taking a page from Switzerland’s book, Hoxha decided to build over 700,000 bunkers all over the country (i.e. one for every four or five citizens) and stock them with an absolutely immense amount of small weaponry.

Well Hoxha died in 1985, the Cold War ended roughly a dozen years later and today Albania is a democracy looking to join NATO. The problem is they still have all of the bunkers and weapons. In 1997 no less than 839 million rounds of ammunition (about 300 bullets for each inhabitant) simply walked away from its arsenals and into the hands of local citizens. Another 46,000 tons of ammo and 130,000 assault rifles have been simply destroyed by the government. Thousands of Albanian SKS rifles (the last SKS’s made for an armed forces, manufactured at the Umgramsh Factory from 1967-1980) are showing up all over the world as bargain surplus guns. The country is even looking into giving away its old Whiskey class submarines to the land-locked Czech Republic.

Now the country has hit on the idea to simply donate its surplus ammunition to Iraq and Afghanistan…where it will undoubtedly be used.