-Caveat Lector- British reporter killed in Kosovo http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/macedonia/story/0,7369,465273,00.html Staff and agencies Thursday March 29, 2001 A British journalist was killed today near the Kosovo-Macedonia border as he arrived to cover the deployment of Nato-led peacekeepers monitoring fighting between Macedonian troops and ethnic Albanian rebels. Kerem Lawton, 30, a news producer working for Associated Press Television News (APTN), died of shrapnel wounds he suffered when a shell hit his vehicle. His car was shelled as he arrived this morning in the village of Krivenik, 1,200 yards (1,100m ) inside the Kosovo border. At least two other civilians were killed and 10 others wounded in the assault. Their identities were not immediately known. Syllejman Klokoqi, an APTN cameraman who was working with Mr Lawton but had left the car moments before it was struck, was uninjured. Mr Klokoqi said he had left the car to photograph refugees fleeing the area, and Mr Lawton was parking it, when he heard an explosion and saw a plume of smoke. "I saw people lying on the ground. I started shouting, 'Kerem! Kerem!' Then I saw Kerem in the car," he said. Nato medics treated Mr Lawton at the scene, then took him by road to Camp Bondsteel, a US military base in Kosovo. He was dead on arrival at the base hospital, said US captain Alayne Cramer. She said the medics were unable to fly him out of the area because of sustained fire. "We are all grief stricken at this loss," said Louis D Boccardi, the president and chief operating officer of the Associated Press. "Kerem's courage and devotion to gathering the story reached beyond any words we can say. We weep with his family and his friends." Major James Marshall, a spokesman for US forces in Kosovo, said no peacekeepers were reported injured in the assault. American soldiers later sealed off the village. Both the Macedonian army and the rebels denied that they were responsible for the Krivenik attack. Commander Sokoli, a regional rebel commander, said the insurgents lacked the military capability to strike the village from their positions in Macedonia. A Macedonian military spokesman, Blagoja Markovski, said the shell that killed Lawton "was not fired from the Macedonian side" but that the army was conducting an investigation to be certain. UN officials said 10 shells landed in the village. Captain Cramer said a crater analysis was being conducted to try to determine where the shells came from. Mr Lawton had been based for the past several months in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo province, and earlier had been assigned to Istanbul, Turkey. He is the 26th AP journalist to die in the line of duty since the news co-operative was founded in 1848. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
