Saturday, March 31, 2001

By Ron Jensen, Kosovo bureau

U.S. Army photo KFOR soldiers and members of United Nations Mission in Kosovo investigate one of the impact areas from a mortar attack which left two dead and 10 injured.

CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo — A stone wall may have saved the life of a top commander in Task Force Falcon on Thursday when mortar rounds exploded in the ethnic Albanian Kosovo town of Krivenik.

Col. Gene Kamena, deputy commander for maneuver of the U.S. contingent, said Friday one and perhaps two rounds landed only 10 feet from him as he walked into the town from his Humvee.

"There was a stone wall between me and where the mortar rounds went off," he said. "The concussion knocked me down."

Two people were killed and 10 were wounded in the incident that is now being investigated by an American military team under the auspices of NATO's Kosovo Force.

The shelling continued periodically for the better part of an hour while Kamena and about 11 soldiers did their best to treat the wounded and evacuate villagers. He counted four salvoes with three to four rounds per salvo, coming at intervals of five to 10 minutes.

The team will determine the types of rounds and their origin and reveal who fired them, said Col. Tom Gross, the task force chief of staff.

"The whole purpose of the investigation is not to blame someone, but to make sure it doesn’t happen again," Gross said.

For the past few weeks, the Macedonian army has fought with Albanian rebels along the border in an effort to put down the insurgency. During that time, U.S. liaison teams have traveled with Macedonian forces to inform them of KFOR positions and activities north of the border and to inform KFOR of Macedonian operations.

However, the liaison team was conducting a switch-out Thursday morning and no Americans were with the Macedonians when the shelling occurred, Gross said. Right now, he added, that is being treated as a mere coincidence.

Col. Gene Kamena

In another coincidence, the radar system that detects artillery fire was shut down for maintenance during the time of the shelling.

The U.S. also has an agreement with the Macedonians, he said, that Macedonians will not fire mortars or artillery of any type within 1,000 yards of the border without first informing the Americans.

"If it was the Macedonians, they did not ask for clearance to fire," Gross said of the incident at Krivenik.

Macedonian officials also are conducting an investigation along with KFOR, said a NATO official.

"There will then be a joint commission set up to determine who fired the mortar," the official said on the condition of anonymity. "But we don’t know how long it will take [to come up with a result.]

"If it ends up that it was friendly fire from the [Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia] then something is wrong with their procedures that needs to be fixed. But at this time we don’t know who fired it."

About two weeks ago, a round landed near a Norwegian unit well inside Kosovo. Gross said an investigation pointed to the Macedonians as the origin of that shell, but there was no admission of that on their part.

The initial analysis of the craters in Krivenik, which lies barely 1 kilometer north of the border, points to firing locations southwest of the town. Further investigation, he said, will point to the type of round, its direction and trajectory and "likely firing locations."

Part of the investigation will include the first-hand accounts of Kamena and the soldiers who were with him.

Kamena had visited the town several times during the week to assess the situation and had scheduled this trip two or three days earlier.

"I was doing what I normally do," he said.

As he neared the town about 11:30 a.m. Thursday, he and his three armored Humvees encountered a checkpoint manned by troops from the Polish-Ukrainian Battalion, which is part of Task Force Falcon. They told him a mortar round had fallen about 30 minutes earlier.

"My assessment was, it was probably a stray round," he said, since no other rounds had landed.

U.S. Army photo A local ethnic Albanian man talks to an interpreter and U.S. KFOR soldiers during the investigation of a mortar attack on Krivenik, Kosovo.

He spoke on his radio while some of his soldiers accompanied townspeople into the village. When he finished, he walked toward the town and was nearing Krivenik when the mortar rounds hit near him.

As he picked himself up, two more rounds hit near his soldiers.

He gathered his troops and accounted for everyone before entering the town again to care for the wounded.

"As we started to treat them . . . we took a couple more rounds in the vicinity," he said. Some of the wounded were loaded into vehicles and removed to the checkpoint.

He and some others stayed in the town to look for more wounded and help evacuate people who were jumping up and running between salvoes.

"I just couldn't see leaving because there were kids, women, old people there," he said. "I couldn't see KFOR leaving."

Kamena was in constant contact with Camp Bondsteel and two Apache helicopters overhead, which were unable to locate where the rounds came from.

"The firing was very accurate, either by luck or design, I don't know," said Kamena.

He had high praise for the soldiers who were with him and their actions while under fire, including the two female translators.

"I'm pretty proud of them," he said. "At the end of the day, the soldiers were just covered with blood, dirt and sweat. I think they saved some lives."

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