wars seen elsewhere in the region, died in a plane crash Thursday, February 26. The Macedonian government said. Bosnian and Macedonian officials said Trajkovski was killed when his government plane, a U.S made twin engine aircraft, crashed in a mountainous terrain of Bosnia Herzegovina, about 80 kilometers south of Sarajevo.
Investigators added that everyone on board, including Macedonian President Trajkovski, his delegation, and the two pilots, died in the crash. Explosive experts were reportedly on their way to help recovery efforts in a region littered with land mines of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.
The Bosnian Interior Ministry said bad weather may have played a role in the crash, BosNewsLife monitored. The crash was expected to raise new questions about air traffic control in the area, where American President Bill Clinton’s commerce secretary, Ron Brown, and 34 others died in a similar plane crash in 1996.
The 47-year-old Macedonian president was on his way to the town of Mostar to talk about the economic reconstruction of the Balkans, after a decade of ethnic conflicts, in which at least a quarter-of-a-million people died. 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, the Associated Press (AP) agency reported.
MODERATE POLITICIAN
In Macedonia, the Christian Trajkovski, became known as a moderate politician and was credited with helping to unite a country torn by ethnic tensions, spreading a message of hope and tolerance.
Inaugurated in 1999 as Macedonia’s second president, Trajkovski was seen as a tireless advocate for including ethnic Albanians in Macedonia’s government. He succeeded the charismatic leader Kiro Gligorov who achieved the country’s independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991 without the fighting and atrocities that later marked the wars in Bosnia and Croatia in which a quarter of a million people died.
Trajkovski promised to write a new chapter in the history of his young and impoverished Balkan republic. His first challenge to prove his promises came in 1999 when he asked the international community to help hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia who fled the Serbian crackdown in the neighboring province of Kosovo.
NATO TROOPS
He also allowed NATO troops to be stationed in Macedonia, to prepare air strikes against the Serbian forces of President Slobodan Milosevic, who was later transferred to the United Nations Tribunal in The Hague, The Netherlands, for alleged war crimes.
Although his powers were largely ceremonial, he presided over a 2001 NATO-mediated peace agreement that ended ethnic clashes in Macedonia between ethnic Albanians and Macedonian security forces. Under the accord ethnic Albanians, who make up at least a quarter of Macedonia’s two million strong population, were promised more influence over the police and politics.
They also received guarantees to use keep their cultural identity and language. Earlier, in 1999 he asked the international community to help hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia who fled the Serbian crackdown in the neighboring province of Kosovo.
UNITED STATES
It is believed that Trajkovski’s travels to the United States, where he also studied, influenced his political style and spiritual life. A Methodist minister, Trajkovski studied theology in the United States, where he converted from Orthodox Christianity.
The European Union, following Trajkovski’s death, canceled ceremonies in Dublin, Ireland, to accept Macedonia’s application to join the Union. Expressions of sympathy to the Macedonian people have come from around the world.
"It is to his credit that Macedonia’s population is living together in peace today and that the country is on the path to Europe," German President Johannes Rau said. It is going to be very difficult for the people of Macedonia to fill that gap," added EU foreign policy Chief Javier Solana, who had many conversations about peace with the Macedonian leader.
POPULAR PRESIDENT
Analysts say he was likely to win another term in upcoming presidential elections. That ambition was cut short by Thursday’s crash. "We today lost a friend," Bosnian President Dragan Covic told the conference at the Mostar gathering where Trajkovski was due to appear. About 2,000 participants observed a minute of silence, AP said.
Macedonia’s government planned an emergency session later in the day, and Parliament speaker Ljubco Jordanovski would serve as acting president, officials said. The Defense Ministry reportedly tightened security along Macedonia’s borders and at key state and army institutions.
Trajkovski leaves behind a wife and two children, and a Balkan nation in mourning.
