April 2, 1999

Three US soldiers captured, were in Yugoslavia: Belgrade

Agenmece France-Presse
(via ClariNet)

BELGRADE, April 1 - Serbian state television on Thursday showed footage of three missing US soldiers who it said were "captured on Yugoslav territory on March 31."


This framegrab from Serbian TV taken Thursday, April 1, 1999, shows the three men Serbian authorities claim are U.S. soldiers who disappeared near the Yugoslav-Macedonian border. They were identified on the television broadcast as “officers Andrew Ramirez, Stone James and soldier Steven Gonzalez”. (AP Photo/Serbian TV via CNN).

The Pentagon said the three-man patrol went missing after reportedly coming under fire from small arms.

Quoting a statement from the Pristina corps of the Yugoslav armed forces, Serbian TV said "all three belong to the reconnaissance unit of the US division based in Germany."

The three were identified by the television as "officers Andrew Ramirez and Stone James, and soldier Steven Gonzalez."

James, who was presented as a sergeant, had several bruises and small cuts, while Ramirez, also sergeant, had no apparent bruises.

Gonzalez's face seemed puffy, but bore no sign of bruising.

The three men, wearing US army uniforms, were shown sitting behind a desk and apparently answering questions, but their voices could not be heard.

"The US soldiers offered resistance during capture," the statement added.

The US army patrol was in a humvee military transportation vehicle on a civilian road in the Kumanovo area of Macedonia two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the border with Yugoslavia when they were fired upon and surrounded, Pentagon spokesman Jim Kout said earlier.

NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, interviewed Thursday by the Spanish radio station SER, said the capture was a "really serious act."

He said the missing soldiers had nothing to do with NATO.

They were part of an 1,100-member UN observation force sent to Macedonia three years ago to monitor against possible Serb aggression, he said.

The UN mission ended last month, but the 350-member US contingent, known as Task Force Able Sentry, stayed on to help with forward staging of a potential NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo, The Washington Post reported.

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