Macedonian President killed in plane crash

[stormraiser]

Let's hope this doesn't lead to further instability in the Balkans.

Macedonia's President Killed in Plane Crash
Thursday, February 26, 2004

BITONJA, Bosnia-Herzegovina ? Macedonia's president was killed Thursday when his plane crashed in bad weather in a mountainous part of southern Bosnia en route to an international investment conference, officials said.


The Macedonian government aircraft, carrying President Boris Trajkovski and several other officials to the conference in the western Bosnian city of Mostar, crashed near the village of Bitonja shortly after 8 a.m. local time, the officials said. There were no survivors.

Bosnian police said they found wreckage near the village about 50 miles south of Sarajevo. It was not immediately clear how many people were aboard the plane.

Nedzad Vejzagic, spokesman for the Interior Ministry of Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation, told The Associated Press that "we received confirmation from our patrols that they have found the wreckage of the Macedonian plane and that there are no survivors."

An AP photographer near the scene said five teams of de-mining experts were headed to the crash site, suggesting the plane may have gone down in an area littered with land mines left over from Bosnia's devastating 1992-95 war.

The weather in the area was poor, and it had prompted Albania's prime minister, Fatos Nano, to cancel his own flight to the conference. Nano sent his condolences to the Macedonian government for its "tragic and painful loss."

Macedonia was to formally submit its application for eventual membership in the European Union on Thursday in Ireland, but canceled the presentation and called its delegation back from Dublin, officials said.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, described Trajkovski as having "contributed hugely to reconciliation in Macedonia" and as a strong supporter of Macedonia's ambition to become an EU member.

"Today should have been one of celebration for him," Ahern said in a statement. "I have conveyed my deep sympathy to Prime Minister (Branko) Crvenkovski on behalf the European Union and the government and people of Ireland."

Trajkovski, 47, studied theology in the United States, where he gave up communism and converted from Orthodox Christianity. He was elected president in November 1999. An ordained Methodist minister, his powers were divided with those of Macedonia's prime minister.

He was widely respected in Macedonia for his neutral stance in the former Yugoslav republic, where tensions persist between Macedonians and the country's ethnic Albanian minority following a 2002 war. He had called for a great inclusion of ethnic Albanians in state bodies and institutions.

Javier Solana, the EU's foreign and security affairs chief, called it "a very tragic day for Macedonia, for all the people of that country but also for many people in Europe."

"President Trajkovski was a great man, a man of passion, a man who moved his country forward, not only the reforms but also to get it as close as possible to Europe," Solana said in a statement.

"I was his friend. I was with him in very difficult moments. It is going to be very difficult for the people of Macedonia to fill that gap," he said.

Trajkovski is survived by his wife and their son and daughter. Before assuming the presidency, he served as a deputy foreign minister in the center-right government of former Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski.