The death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski on Saturday brings to mind that this is not the first time that the Head of State of a European country has died abroad in a plane crash. Just six years ago, the then President of Macedonia set out with his advisers for a regional economic summit in Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Endeavouring to land at Mostar Airport in fog, the plane crashed into a mountainside a few kilometres short of the runway. President Boris Trajkovski and all eight others aboard the aircraft perished.

Trajkovski had worked energetically to heal the rifts between different ethnic groups in his native Macedonia, not always with great success. He was an interesting man, not easy to place in Macedonia’s ethno-confessional jigsaw. For Boris Trajkovski was a very active member of the Methodist Church in Macedonia. His death focused media attention on the fact that there are pockets of Methodism throughout former Yugoslavia.

Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries
(hidden europe)