THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 4, 1996 TAG: 9602040046
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
A U.S. soldier was killed Saturday when he apparently stepped on a mine while on guard duty in northeastern Bosnia. He was the first American to die in Bosnia since U.S. troops began flooding into the country in December as part of the NATO peacekeeping mission.
The soldier, whose name was withheld pending notification of next of kin, was fatally wounded at 3:45 p.m. (10:45 a.m. EST) at a checkpoint near the town of Gradacac, 25 miles north of Tuzla, said an Army spokesman, Lt. Bill Donovan.
``We believe he was on foot'' and manning the checkpoint, Donovan said. He said the soldier was pronounced dead at the 212th mobile Army surgical hospital nearby.
President Clinton, informed of the death while in New Hampshire, was asked by a reporter if it gave him second thoughts about the Bosnian mission. ``No, not at all,'' Clinton said. ``I told the American people before it started the place was filled with mines.'' He noted that other allied peacekeepers had been killed by land mines in Bosnia.
In a formal statement issued by the White House, he said: ``I deeply regret the death today in Bosnia of an American soldier who was killed this morning when he stepped on a land mine. Hillary and I join all Americans in extending our deepest sympathies to the family. They should know that he died in the noblest of causes - the pursuit of peace.''
An estimated 3 million mines riddle Bosnia, and another 3 million are in neighboring Croatia. Mine-clearing operations are slow and have been hampered by bad weather and the factions' lack of equipment.
At a briefing Saturday, British army Maj. Gen. Michael Willcocks, chief of staff of NATO ground forces in Bosnia, said his forces have received information about the locations of only about 700,000 mines in 7,000 minefields. He quoted the commander of the Bosnian army, Gen. Rasim Delic, as saying he thought it would take 30 years to clear all of his army's mines.
The problem,'' Willcocks said, ``is that some of the people who laid the mines are dead. And some of the territory has shifted hands so many times that people have forgotten where the minefields are.''
Willcocks said the European Union is preparing a $700,000 donation to buy equipment - such as protective clothing and mine detection devices - for all three sides. In addition, Rory O'Sullivan, a World Bank official, said the bank would provide more funds for such work.
``We're going to pump a lot of money into the mine-clearing effort because without that, the whole infrastructure program won't get off the ground,'' he said.
Land mines, not troops, have proved the most dangerous hazard for the NATO-led force in Bosnia. In addition to the three British soldiers killed last Sunday, four Danish soldiers were hurt the previous week when their Leopard tank set off an antitank mine.
A U.S. officer, Lt. Robert Washburn, 26, had part of his foot amputated after stepping on an antipersonnel mine south of Tuzla on Thursday. He was awarded the Purple Heart on Friday. Shrapnel from the same explosion hit another U.S. soldier in the leg, but doctors said he was expected to be back on duty in a few days.
In late December, another American, Army Spec. Martin J. Begosh of Rockville, was wounded when his Humvee detonated an antitank mine in northern Bosnia. Begosh was the first American wounded in Bosnia.
Sgt. Clement E. Southall Jr., a native of Virginia Beach, died at a logistics base in Taszar, Hungary, last month, apparently of a heart attack.
The soldier's death Saturday came as the former warring parties in Bosnia - Serbs, Croats and the country's Muslim-led government - met a midnight deadline to withdraw troops from areas scheduled to change hands in March under the peace agreement reached last fall in Dayton, Ohio.
Despite the fatality, NATO commanders remained upbeat Saturday about the prospects for peace in Bosnia and praised the cooperation by all sides. They said that in the past few days, all of the rival forces had withdrawn from the areas to be exchanged.
The Bosnian Serbs and the Muslim and Croat federation are scheduled to exchange about 1,500 square miles of territory.
As part of an effort to calm the fears of many Serbs, Serbian police and civil authorities are being permitted to remain 45 days beyond Saturday night's deadline.
Willcocks also said that the March 19 deadline for a complete transfer of territory could be delayed if, in NATO's judgment, security concerns warranted such a postponement.
``It's a matter of a security judgment, which will be made by us at the time,'' he said.
But the decision by Carl Bildt, the coordinator of the civilian side of the peace accord, to allow the Serbian police to remain in the five suburbs has angered the Bosnian government.
``We consider it as the wrong interpretation of this part of the Dayton agreement,'' President Alija Izetbegovic said, ``and the presence of Serb police for another 45 days is illegal.'' MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The New York Times, The
Washington Post and The Associated Press.
KEYWORDS: OPERATION JOINT ENDEAVOR BOSNIA FATALITY
by CNB