THREE U.S. SOLDIERS CAPTURED

April 1, 1999
		Three US Army personnel who were reported missing while on patrol near the Yugoslav-Macedonia border are being held by the Serb government. NATO officials are investigating whether the soldiers were captured in Yugoslavia or abducted from Macedonia.

Strikes in Yugoslavia Coverage March 24, 1999: Secretary Albright discusses the air strikes. March 23, 1999: What does NATO hope to achieve through air strikes? March 22, 1999: The Yugoslavian ambassador to the U.N. discusses growing tension.   NATO US State Department

Images of the three visibly-bruised soldiers were broadcast on Serbian television, who reported they had resisted arrest. US Defense Department officials identified the soldiers as Staff Sgt. Andrew A. Ramirez, 24, of Los Angeles; Staff Sgt. Christopher J. Stone, 25, of Smiths Creek, Mich.; and Spec. Steven M. Gonzales, 24, of Huntsville, Texas. NATO Secretary General Javier Solana demanded that the US soldiers be treated as prisoners of war according to the Geneva Convention. "We will hold [Yugoslav President Slobodan] Milosevic responsible for the safety of the three US soldiers," Solana said in Brussels on Thursday. "He has to know that very clearly." Supreme Allied Commander Wesley Clark issued a sterner warning. "We're very concerned about the safety and welfare of the three soldiers who were abducted by Serb forces," General Clark told reporters. "We've all seen their pictures. We don't like it. We don't like the way they're treated. And we have a long memory about these kinds of things." Yugoslav officials countered that the three have not been mistreated. "I would like to tell you they will be treated in the most, best humane way," Deputy Prime Minister Vuk Draskovic told ABC's Good Morning America. The Yugoslav government did indicate they intend to put the three on trial before a military court. The US immediately called any such trial a violation of international law. "There was absolutely no basis for them to be taken. There is no basis for them to be held. There is certainly no basis for them to be tried," President Clinton told service members at a speech in Norfolk, VA. "President Milosevic should make no mistake: the United States takes care of its own." Although the Defense Department said the three soldiers had been on a routine daytime reconnaissance mission in the Kumanovo area of Macedonia, a town three miles from the Yugoslav border, Serb government officials said the three had been arrested within their borders. The soldiers were driving along a civilian road when "they received small arms fire and said they were surrounded," a NATO statement issued late Wednesday read. "No more was heard from the patrol." US forces, joined by British, French and Italian allies, immediately launched a search and rescue mission to locate the troops and was only called off once the soldiers' images were broadcast. The soldiers, members of the US Army's 1st Infantry Division, were part of a garrison guarding the Yugoslav-Macedonia border during the ongoing NATO airstrikes against the Serb military in Yugoslavia.

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