Ian Collins' Death and Macedonia's Doubt
by Sam Koritz
August 30, 2001 Updated 3:00 pm EDT

Newspapers from different nations will often report the same story quite differently, as we can see from Reality Macedonia's translation of an August 29 article from Dnevnik, Macedonia's main newspaper, which offers a perspective on the death of British soldier Ian Collins that can't be found in the British or American press. First, the Anglo-American version:

Sapper Collins died on Monday, August 27, early in the morning. The next day, the London Times published a piece by Michael Evans, "Boy gang incited to ambush Nato men." According to the Times, Sapper Collins was killed when a group of Macedonian teenagers perched on a bridge dropped a piece of cement through the window of the Land Rover he was driving, and the vehicle overturned.

Two paragraphs into the piece, Evans writes, "After the Land Rover had skidded and overturned, they surrounded the Land Rover and 'further threatened' the fatally injured driver and the young captain from his regiment sitting next to him." The phrase, "further threatened," is in quotation marks, but Evans does not indicate who made the statement.

We can assume, though, that the speaker is Sima Stojic, an 18-year-old Macedonian who appears to be the only (alleged) witness interviewed by Evans, perhaps because Stojic speaks some English. Evans, describes Stojic in this non sequitur:

"Speaking in broken English, learnt during two years in Detroit, the part-time mechanic witnessed the incident while riding home on his scooter."

Evans then quotes Stojic, who appears to speak – not broken English – but the conversational English of an eloquent native speaker. Stojic, as quoted by Evans, also appears to have great powers of observation and memory, especially considering the fact that Stojic was, presumably, quickly riding along on his scooter when he witnessed the events described:

"There were about ten of them on the bridge and another five at the side of the road…."

"Five of them on the bridge were on one side looking out for a military vehicle, the other five were standing ready with a piece of concrete about 1ft long and 9in wide. I saw one of them lift this concrete slab high over his head and then throw it down when the vehicle went under the bridge. It went through the windscreen and another piece went through the window."

"The vehicle skidded violently from side to side for about 15 metres and then turned over. It was a dreadful sound. Some of the boys then ran down to where the vehicle was and started to throw stones at it. But soldiers came from other vehicles and they ran off. I know the youths, I know their names."

"…I know the name of the kid who threw the concrete that hit the vehicle. After it happened, they all ran off over the dual carriageway to the other side where the school is. None of them came from Magari."

A US Army vehicle came to rescue the overturned Land Rover. The medics called for a helicopter, which flew the injured soldier to Camp Able Sentry, a US military base near Skopje. From there he was flown to Camp Bondsteel, a huge US military base in Kosovo. It was then decided that Sapper Collins needed surgery, so he was flown back to Skopje. Almost 5 hours after the Land Rover overturned, a neurosurgeon began operating – and a few hours later, Sapper Collins died.

It should be noted that Stojic, the only (alleged) witness interviewed, does not claim that the "boy gang" had been "incited to ambush NATO men" – as the Times' title confidently claims.

On Wednesday, August 29, the day after the Times published Michael Evans' piece, Dnevnik, Macedonia's largest newspaper, replied. Supposedly based on interviews with unnamed sources, Dnevnik questioned whether the incident occurred in the place, time and manner that NATO claimed.

According to Dnevnik, the Macedonia/NATO agreement requires NATO to include the Macedonian police in any investigation, yet NATO did not inform the police of the overturned Land Rover. An unnamed Macedonian police officer claimed that NATO had cleaned the site and removed the vehicle before the police arrived, that NATO gave contradictory descriptions of the vehicle, and that NATO claimed that the vehicle had been transporting sensitive documents. When the police asked to inspect the damaged vehicle they were told that it had already been repaired. Dnevnik also claimed that, according to the medical staff that examined Sapper Collins, he did not die from a piece of concrete hitting his head, but from the vehicle overturning.

Also on Wednesday the 29th, Sima Stojic, the broken-English-speaking "witness" from the Times' piece gave an interview on Macedonian television, during which he announced that he plans to sue the Times. Stojic claimed that the Times' journalists had offered to pay him for an eyewitness account of the incident, but he had told them that he hadn't seen anything – so they fabricated his interview.

Later that day, NATO spokesman, US Major Barry Johnson said, "I've been very frustrated by the misinformation and the way the facts have been presented by the Macedonian media, which has seemed to allude that NATO has been less than forthright'' about the death of Ian Collins.