State funeral for Macedonian late president set

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 04, 2004

State funeral for Macedonian late president set

The remains of Macedonian president Boris Trajkovski, killed when his aircraft crashed in Bosnia last week, were returned to the Macedonian capital ahead of his state funeral.
(Photo: father Kiril Trajkovski(L), daughter Sara and widow Vilma (R) mourn at Skopje airport.)

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The remains of Macedonian president Boris Trajkovski, killed when his aircraft crashed in Bosnia last week, were returned to the Macedonian capital ahead of his state funeral.

His coffin along with those of eight others who died in the crash were draped in red and yellow Macedonian flags as they were unloaded from a US military C-160 cargo plane which had brought them from neighbouring Bosnia.

A guard of honour received the coffin and carried past Trajkovski's family to a hearse, which then drove slowly in the direction of Skopje's parliament building.

The coffin will be put on public display at parliament until the funeral, which is expected on Friday.

Trajkovski, who was 47, and several of his closest advisors died when his presidential plane crashed in heavy fog around dawn on February 26, a few minutes before it was due to land in the southern Bosnian town of Mostar.

Investigations are under way to establish the cause of the crash.

Senior Bosnian officials earlier held a brief departure ceremony at the Sarajevo airport as the coffins were loaded onto the US aircraft, part of NATO (news - web sites) forces in the Balkan country.

"Boris Trajkovski was a man of peace and tolerance. He stood for the co-existence of different people, cultures and religions," one of Bosnia's three presidents, Sulejman Tihic, said in a speech.

"In the Balkans region and in our turbulent history that means a lot."

Trajkovski was elected president in 1999 and won respect in 2001 for helping to broker peace during bloody inter-ethnic violence between Macedonians and ethnic Albanians which threatened to plunge his country into a civil war.

His death shocked Macedonia, which declared three days of mourning for a man seen as a wise and even-handed leader.

Presidential elections are expected to be held in Macedonia by early April.

Source: Agencies

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