To: steve kammerer who wrote (55827 ) 4/6/1999 4:27:00 PM From: Chris Le Respond to of 97611
Steve, here's the rumr:> www.serbia-info.com/news > > The first 19 bodies of the American soldiers transported > home > April 04, 1999 > > One of downed NATO aircraft > > Athens, April 3 (Tanjug - abridged) - The first 19 bodies of > the American soldiers are secretly transported from > Macedonia to Thessalonika from where are being transported > to their homes in America at the metal coffins, Greek paper 'Athinaiki'' says. > > The coffins were discovered accidently in a routine check by Macedonian Customs. > > The newspaper from Athens says at its first page that the > bodies went through Skoplje and reached the Military > Hospital number 424 in Thessalonika completely secretly and in the exhort of the officers where are prepared for the > further transportation. > > ''Athinaiki'' stresses that the bodies of 12 American > soldiers arrived in Thessalonika on Wednesday first and that they have already transported to the USA. The next seven > bodies was transported to the Greek harbor on Thursday from where they should be transported across the ocean today. > > Stressing that the Greek authorities claim that they do not know a thing considering this case ''Athinaiki'' says that > the USA are bond to the ''law of silence'' as in the Whitman and Iraq and that they will announce their losts later on > when it is the most adequate to themselves. > > ---------------------------------------------------------- -- > ------------------- > > Skoplje, April 4 - Macedonian customs officials said on > Sunday that 19 coffins with bodies of U.S. soldiers killed > in NATO's criminal aggression on Yugoslavia had passed > through Macedonia en route to Greece. > > The report in the Greek newspaper Athinaiki is true, > "because we personally saw the bodies of dead soldiers in > the coffins," said Macedonian customs officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. > > They added that they saw the bodies when they opened the > coffins in line with the regulations at one of the border > crossings to Greece, whose name was not disclosed for > obvious reasons. > > They could give no more details, saying only that there were two shipments - of 12 and 7 coffins, respectively - escorted by a number of U.S. officers. > > The customs officials could not say which route the vehicles carrying the coffins had taken through Macedonia before > reaching the border crossing to Greece. > > They said, however, that the "coffins were in containers" > and that they were "taken over by Greek policemen" on the > Greek side of the border. > > The dates mentioned in the Greek newspaper are also true, > because they were the dates the coffins crossed the > Macedonian-Greek border, the customs officials said. > >