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Journalism of Courage
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, who averted a civil war in his country, was killed on Thursday when his plane crashed into a Bosnian mountainside in thick fog.
His death was announced by Irish PM Bertie Ahern as he postponed talks with Macedonia’s PM, in Dublin to lodge a formal application to join the EU. Yet more than seven hours after the small, twin-engined Beechcraft Super King went down, NATO denied official Macedonian and Bosnian reports that its peacekeepers had found the crash site, the plane wreckage and the bodies of all nine aboard.
In a sometimes chaotic search over an area where landmines remain a risk, a convoy of NATO and Bosnian police vehicles, ambulances and de-mining units scoured muddy routes in a valley and mountainsides south of Stolac.
Trajkovski was minutes from his scheduled landing in Mostar for an economic conference when his flight disappeared from radar screens at 8:01 am. — (Reuters)
