Macedonian President's Body Found

Search parties on Friday recovered the body of Macedonia's president and eight others killed in a plane crash in a remote and mountainous corner of Bosnia, the Macedonian government said.

Government spokesman Saso Colakovski said the information came from a 20-member Macedonian delegation at the scene of Thursday's crash, which claimed the life of President Boris Trajkovski, a moderate leader who helped unite his ethnically divided Balkan country.

Trajkovski's twin-engine turboprop crashed in thick fog en route to an international investment conference in the southern Bosnian city of Mostar. Six other Macedonian officials and the plane's two pilots also were killed, officials said.

Trajkovski, 47, was widely respected for his neutral stance in the former Yugoslav republic, where tensions persist between Macedonians and the country's ethnic Albanian minority after a 2001 war. He had called for a great inclusion of ethnic Albanians in state bodies and institutions.

His death comes at a critical time for still-tense Macedonia. Trajkovski had been widely hailed for his efforts to get Macedonians and rival ethnic Albanians to live together in peace.

Bosnia and Macedonia declared Friday a day of mourning for Trajkovski, and messages of condolence poured in from world leaders. Mourners lit candles in front of Trajkovski's office in Skopje, where the mood was muted and flags flew at half-staff.

A search helicopter spotted the wreckage earlier Friday morning, more than 24 hours after the twin-engine turboprop crashed, said Capt. Dave Sullivan of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia. Explosives experts were called in to clear a path to the scene, which was heavily mined from Bosnia's 1992-95 war. Officials said the wreckage was strewn over 200 yards.

Local authorities aided by peacekeepers had hunted all day Thursday for the aircraft but had called off the search overnight and resumed it at daybreak. Trajkovski's plane was in a remote area outside the village of Huskovici, about 50 miles south of Sarajevo.

"The loss is huge," said Macedonian Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski, who shared power with the president. "We should mourn, but we shouldn't be afraid. Macedonia is a strong and stable country."

European Union and NATO leaders urged Macedonia's government to carry on Trajkovski's work to secure lasting stability in the country. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, visiting Skopje on Friday, urged all Macedonians to "show courage, unity and maturity ... at this time of great loss."

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called Trajkovski "a great friend of the United States" who helped put his ethnically divided nation on "a stable footing."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said through a spokesman that Trajkovski would be remembered "for his crucial role in preserving the unity of his country and laying down the basis for the stability of a multiethnic Macedonian state."

Macedonia's government met in emergency session Thursday evening, and said parliament speaker Ljubco Jordanovski would serve as acting president. The Defense Ministry said security was tightened along Macedonia's borders and at key state and army institutions.

But officials took pains to reassure people that there was no crisis. "All institutions are functioning normally and the security of the state is not in question," government spokesman Saso Colakovski said.

A Methodist minister, Trajkovski studied theology in the United States, where he converted from Orthodox Christianity. He was elected in November 1999, the second president in Macedonia's history.

His first major challenge came during Serbia's crackdown on ethnic Albanians in neighboring Kosovo, when hundreds of thousands of them fled across Macedonia's northern border from the troops of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in the 1999 Kosovo war.

Trajkovski promptly called on the international community to aid Macedonia and help the Kosovo refugees. The country opened its borders and homes, and allowed NATO to station troops there in preparation for punishing airstrikes against Serbia over Kosovo.

An even bigger test for Trajkovski came when Macedonia's ethnic Albanians launched an insurgency in 2001 to fight for more rights for their minority, which comprises a quarter of the country's 2 million people.

Through six months of bitter fighting, Trajkovski calmly steered the nation toward the Western-brokered peace deal that ended the conflict and urged reconciliation between the two ethnic communities.