Saudi Arabia, battling a wave of militant violence, announced a two-month amnesty on Tuesday during which citizens can surrender unlicensed weapons without penalty.
| That's one month more than they gave the unlicensed militants. |
| "Guns in the green bin, please! Knives in the orange bin. Rocket launchers in the brown bin. Bombs over 100 kg in the red bin..." |
An Interior Ministry statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency called on Saudis to "make use of this opportunity and hand over unlicensed weapons".
| "Hand it over? My granddaddy gimme that ballistic missile! I wuz only eight years old..." |
Those who did not comply would be punished, it said. The move comes less than a week after Riyadh announced a one-month amnesty for al Qaeda militants -- who have been waging a year-long wave of attacks targeting expatriates, government buildings and officials, and oil-related facilities -- to give themselves up. At least 85 police and civilians, many of them foreigners, have been killed in suicide bombings and shootings over the last 13 months.
| That leads me to believe they're not gonna give themselves up... |
Authorities have seized huge caches of weapons including rifles, pistols, hand grenades, mortars, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and tonnes of explosives. Many of the weapons are believed to have been smuggled across Saudi Arabia's porous southern mountain border with Yemen.
| Those in Yemen are believe to have been smuggled across that country's porous border with Soddy Arabia... |
The two countries have agreed to tighten security controls on the frontier to stem the flow.
| Right. Sure. Any day now. |
Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz said earlier this month that foreigners who have been unnerved by the recent wave of violence may be granted licences to carry weapons. But the Saudi Press Agency said no new licences have been issued for more than two years.
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