Unrest in Macedonia delaying
investigation of fatal mortar attack
By Ron Jensen, U.K.
bureau
NATO has yet to conclude its investigation into a mortar attack in March on a Kosovo
town near the Macedonian border that killed two people and came close to injuring or
killing American soldiers.
A spokeswoman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said the joint investigation
by NATO and the Macedonian government was still under way.
"It’s on its way," she said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
The spokeswoman, who asked not to be identified, said the delay in finalizing the
report of the investigation was caused by the unrest that continues to plague Macedonia.
Ethnic Albanians have violently challenged the government in sporadic clashes since
March. NATO and European Union officials have pushed for peace talks, but little, if any,
progress is being made.
Those events, the spokeswoman said, have captured the time and interest of alliance
officials who would put the finishing touches on the investigation to determine the origin
of the mortar attack.
"The problem is that there is a hell of a lot going on," she said. Those
officials are "extremely busy doing other things."
The village of Krivenik is less than one mile north of the border with Macedonia. On
the morning of March 29, several mortar shells fired at intervals slammed into the
mountain village.
One Kosovar was killed, as was a British journalist working for The Associated Press
Television service. Several others were injured.
About a dozen U.S. troops were in the town and were caught in the shelling, which came
in three or four salvos several minutes apart.
Col. Gene Kamena, deputy commander for maneuvers of the U.S. force in Kosovo at the
time, was knocked off his feet by the impact of a shell. His life was perhaps saved by a
stone fence that separated him from the shell’s direct impact site.
None of the troops was injured.
At the time, Kosovo Force launched an investigation, along with the joint
NATO-Macedonia investigation.
However, the Macedonian military released a statement a week later saying it was not
responsible. That statement was called premature at the time by George Robertson, the
alliance secretary-general.
Col. Tom Gross said one day after the shelling that the Macedonians did not have the
required clearance from the United States to fire artillery within close proximity of the
border. Gross was chief of staff of the U.S. task force at the time.
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