COMMEMORATION OF KILLED BELGIAN SOLDIER HELD AT KLISA AIRPORT

KLISA, Feb 2 (Hina) - UNTAES troops, along with their commander Lieutenant General Willy Hanset, the deputy Transitional Administrator Derek Boothby and Belgian UNTAES battalion commander, Colonel Erwin Allemeersch, and Croatian senior officials, on Sunday paid the last respects to the killed Belgian corporal, Olivier Gossye, at Klisa air field, eastern Croatia. Paying the last honours to the 23-year-old deceased Belgian, Lieutenant General Hanset said that corporal Gossye had believed in peace working together with UNTAES civil and military colleagues and that he had been killed while he had been serving with the Belgian battalion (in eastern Slavonia). Lt. Gen. Hanset added that Gossye had also believed in a success of peaceful reintegration. He offered his condolences to the killed Belgian soldier's parents. Colonel Allemeersch said that they were parting from an honorable soldier who had been killed in a mission of peace. A Belgian Roman Catholic priest, Gent Dewulf, said that the everybody was deeply affected by the dead of the young man. After the commemoration, the UN deputy Transitional Administrator Boothby told reporters that Sunday's parting from the Belgian soldier was the consequence of the tragic event. He added that this was the first case after UNTAES arrived in eastern Slavonia a year and two weeks before. He voiced a hope this would be the last tragic event. Boothby described the murder of the Belgian soldier as a criminal rather than political act, and said that a suspect had "problems with drugs and alcohol." He added that the area (under the UNTAES control) was safe and secure and only a small number of people constituted a threat to all what UNTAES was doing. He thanked all who had conveyed condolences to UNTAES, and added that people from the UNTAES-controlled area as well as Croatian authorities expressed condolences on the Belgian soldier's death. We shall not tolerate such acts and we shall punish perpetrators appropriately, as we want the UNTAES-controlled area to remain safe, Boothby said. A spokesman for UNTAES, Phillip Arnold, said to reporters that UNTAES was keeping the suspect of the murder of the Belgian soldier under surveillance. The 25-year-old suspect, of Beli Manastir, who was temporarily living in Vukovar, was drunk when he committed a murder, according to Arnold. Arnold warned that another incidents could be expected as the process of peaceful reintegration was coming closer to the end. He added that "criminal and political incidents" would be often mixed and added that in the area there were many people who had become rich in an illegal way. Arnold said they a boy, 15 to 16 years old, was killed at Srijemske Laze last night in the blast of a bomb with which he was toying carelessly. Asked what Transitional Administrator General Jacques Klein had said about last Friday's tragic event in Vukovar when the Belgian soldier died and another two UNTAES members were injured, Arnold replied that General Klein had said that this would not stop the process of peaceful reintegration. The Croatian delegation at the commemoration was led by the Croatian temporary administration office head, Ivica Vrkic, his deputy, Mirko Tankosic, and Croatian Army Djakovo units deputy commander, Major General Slavko Baric. (hina) mš 021515 MET feb 97