Letter: Serving under U.N. is deadly

Wednesday, June 2, 2004 | 9:06 a.m.

Lost amid the shocking news emanating from Iraq was an incident involving the death of three American prison guards in Kosovo. Kim Bigley, 47, of Paducah, Ky., and Lynn Williams, 48, of Elmont, N.Y., were serving as U.N. police officers in Kosovo when they were gunned down on April 17 by a Jordanian comrade. Eleven others were wounded in the 10-minute shootout near a prison in Kosovska Mitrovica before the assailant himself was killed. A third American, Gary Weston of Vienna, Ill., was left brain-dead in the battle and later died. He was evacuated to the United States on life-support so his organs could be donated.

"In coming to Kosovo, they knew that there were real risks and real dangers associated with their work," Maurice Ries, the ranking U.S. diplomat in Kosovo, told the Associated Press. "Nonetheless, it came as a terrible shock when they were gunned down, before they could even properly begin the assignment for which they had come to Kosovo."

The risks and dangers confronted by U.S. law enforcement and military personnel are unconscionably compounded when they are compelled to serve under U.N. command, alongside potentially hostile foreign nationals in missions that have nothing to do with the protection of our nation and way of life.

FRANK M. PELTESON