Sazan Island served as a naval base under Albania’s communist regime and remains under the control of the Ministry of Defence. To pave the way to granting it strategic investor status, Albania’s President Bajram Begaj earlier signed an urgent decree removing a military training zone from the Armed Forces deployment plan.
Nevertheless, the island’s century-long legacy as a military zone has left its marks.
“On Sazan Island and in the waters surrounding it, despite the work carried out to identify and clear unexploded ordnance … there remains the possibility and risk of the presence of unexploded munitions on land territory, along the coastline, as well as in the surrounding maritime waters,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces wrote in a response to BIRN.
The General Staff said it had identified four zones with a massive presence of unexploded ordnance in the waters surrounding the island.
It said although several military clearance operations were conducted between 2013 and 2015 in three of these zones, the quantity of explosives remains alarming.
In Zone 3 alone, the north-east of the island and considered the most contaminated area, around 30 tonnes of munitions of various calibres were recovered and destroyed.
“In this zone, munitions of various calibres, as well as gunpowder, have been identified, dispersed across an area of approximately 7,000 sq m, both with and without fuses. In this zone, around 30 tonnes of munitions of various calibres have been recovered and destroyed,” the General Staff stated.
In Zones 1 and 2, where several thousand square metres were also identified as contaminated, the General Staff did not mention the quantities of munitions recovered from the sea but noted that unexploded ordnance may still be present there.
“Despite the operations carried out to clear Zones 1, 2 and 3, there remains the possibility that sea currents may have uncovered and displaced other unexploded munitions, which during the period of the operations may have been covered by sand and seabed sediments,” it stated. It warned that even in the areas where interventions have taken place, there may be unexploded ordnance.
According to the General Staff, the principal concern stems from the fourth zone, or “Gryka e Xhehenemit” – the Gorge of Hell.
Data from the Ministry of Defence shows that in this area, west of Sazan, unexploded ordnance is present across an area of 5,000 square metres at depths ranging from five to 30 metres.
“No clearance operations have been carried out in this zone,” the General Staff said.
This situation was confirmed on the ground by fishermen and other visitors to the area.
A 60-year-old diver, who asked to remain anonymous, said the depths around Sazan remain an open depot of weaponry and the army’s partial operations often fail to counter the forces of nature.
“The sea is difficult to clear,” he said. “An operation was carried out, but the sea brings up new ones – it is not easy to clean.”
He added that in the so-called Gorge of Hell, where he used to dive for octopus, he personally saw more than 50 Italian 200-millimetre calibre artillery shells.
The fisherman said he knows these weapons well, having served in the navy between 1985 and 1987 aboard minesweeper vessels tasked with clearing naval mines.
“Near the beach, in the area known as the Sazan Beach, there are anti-submarine mines. There are also large artillery shells,” he said, recalling his years of naval service.
“We didn’t dive for the munitions, so I cannot tell you how many there are, but there are many,” he claimed.
He insisted that they remain hazardous.
“The anti-submarine mines, especially, theoretically have their detonation mechanisms out of function, but the explosive material remains there. If you do not disturb them, there is no danger. But if they are touched or moved, the consequences could be fatal,” he said.
Clearing ordnance won’t be cheap