SeanAshi
02-26-2004, 04:20 AM
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — A plane carrying Macedonia's (search) president to an international investment conference in Bosnia (search) disappeared from radar on Thursday, U.S. peacekeepers said.
The Macedonian government aircraft, carrying President Boris Trajkovski (search) to the conference in the western Bosnian city of Mostar, lost contact with air-traffic controllers near the border between Bosnia and Montenegro, said Capt. Ben Thorp, a spokesman for U.S. peacekeepers in Bosnia.
Officials said it was too early to determine whether the plane had crashed. A search helicopter was dispatched to look for the plane.
Trajkovski's Cabinet chief, Andrej Lepavcov, told The Associated Press that the European air traffic monitoring agency informed Macedonia's government that the president's plane had "disappeared off the radar screens."
"We know nothing beyond that at this point," he said.
Trajkovski, 47, was elected in 1999 and was educated in the United States. An ordained Methodist minister who studied law, his powers are divided with those of Macedonia's prime minister.
He is 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 2002 war.
The Macedonian government aircraft, carrying President Boris Trajkovski (search) to the conference in the western Bosnian city of Mostar, lost contact with air-traffic controllers near the border between Bosnia and Montenegro, said Capt. Ben Thorp, a spokesman for U.S. peacekeepers in Bosnia.
Officials said it was too early to determine whether the plane had crashed. A search helicopter was dispatched to look for the plane.
Trajkovski's Cabinet chief, Andrej Lepavcov, told The Associated Press that the European air traffic monitoring agency informed Macedonia's government that the president's plane had "disappeared off the radar screens."
"We know nothing beyond that at this point," he said.
Trajkovski, 47, was elected in 1999 and was educated in the United States. An ordained Methodist minister who studied law, his powers are divided with those of Macedonia's prime minister.
He is 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 2002 war.