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Plane
Crash
Kills
Macedonia's
President
Associated
Press
(Feb
26,
2004,
07:15
AM)
- Macedonia's
president,
a
moderate
leader
credited
for
helping
to
unite
his
ethnically
divided
country,
was
killed
Thursday
when
his
plane
crashed
in
bad
weather
in
mountainous
southern
Bosnia.
Boris
Trajkovski,
47,
was
en
route
to
an
international
investment
conference
in
the
western
Bosnian
city
of
Mostar,
when
his
plane
with
six
other
officials
and
two
pilots
went
down
near
the
village
of
Bitonja
shortly
after
8
a.m.
local
time,
officials
said.
There
were
no
survivors.
Bosnian
police
said
they
found
wreckage
of
the
U.S.-made
Beechcraft
Super
King
Air
200
twin-engine
turboprop
near
the
village
about
50
miles
south
of
Sarajevo.
"We
received
confirmation
from
our
patrols
that
they
have
found
the
wreckage
of
the
Macedonian
plane
and
that
there
are
no
survivors,"
Nedzad
Vejzagic,
spokesman
for
the
Interior
Ministry
of
Bosnia's
Muslim-Croat
federation,
told
The
Associated
Press.
By
early
afternoon,
Bosnian
President
Dragan
Covic
told
the
Mostar
conference
participants
that
search
teams
had
recovered
four
of
the
nine
bodies.
"We
today
lost
a
friend
...
our
thoughts
are
with
the
families
of
the
victims,"
Covic
said
as
the
gathering
of
about
2,000
participants
observed
a
minute
of
silence.
He
called
Trajkovski
"irreplaceable."
A
commission
was
to
be
formed
in
Bosnia
to
investigate
the
cause
of
the
accident.
Macedonia's
government
planned
to
convene
an
emergency
session
later
in
the
day.
Macedonia's
state
media
aired
only
classical
music
and
urgent
news
items
after
announcing
the
crash.
Macedonia's
Defense
Ministry
said
security
was
beefed
up
along
the
country's
borders
and
at
key
state
and
army
institutions.
Parliament
speaker
Ljubco
Jordanovski
would
serve
as
acting
president,
officials
said.
In
Bosnia,
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.
Rain,
heavy
cloud
cover
and
thick
fog
in
the
area
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."
NATO
Secretary-General
Jaap
de
Hoop
Scheffer
also
expressed
condolences
in
a
statement,
saying
Trajkovski
"demonstrated
great
leadership
to
preserve
the
unity
of
his
country
when
it
was
under
threat."
"In
difficult
circumstances,
and
in
the
face
of
opposition
from
many,
he
guided
the
peace
process
in
the
former
Yugoslav
Republic
of
Macedonia,"
de
Hoop
Scheffer
said.
"I
pay
tribute
to
this
courageous
statesman
who
fought
to
ensure
that
democratic
values
would
prevail
in
his
country."
Trajkovski
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
2001
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.
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.
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