Gurkhas died moving allied bombs

The Gurkhas were yesterday in mourning for two colleagues who became the first members of the British forces to die in operations in the Balkans.

The servicemen died while trying to make safe unexploded Nato bombs dropped during the air campaign against Yugoslavia.

It had initially been feared that the two soldiers - Lieutenant Gareth Evans, 25, from Bristol, and Sergeant Balaram Rai, 35, from Nepal - may have been victims of a booby-trap laid by Serb forces.

Yesterday, it was confirmed they had been attempting to move cluster bombs away from a school in a bid to avoid further damage to a wrecked Kosovan village when they were killed.

Two local civilians also died in Monday's explosion, while another is in hospital with shrapnel wounds to the chest.

The British soldiers had been called to Negrovce, 18 miles west of the Kosovan capital Pristina, by villagers worried about the lethal devices littering the school grounds.

The villagers had gathered the weapons into a pile by the schoolhouse.

The British soldiers originally planned to destroy the devices in a controlled blast, without moving them, after arriving at the village.

But the two men, serving with the 69th Gurkha Field Squadron - part of the 36th Engineer Regiment based at Maidstone, Kent - agreed to shift the bombs to a less central site after a local doctor begged them not to add to the devastation of the village.

It was after the devices were moved that their mercy-mission went wrong.

British military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nick Clissitt, speaking yesterday in Pristina, said: "It was during the wiring of the charges that two piles detonated prematurely with tragic results."

When asked if troop morale had been affected, Lt Col Clissitt said: "When people are killed it is tragic and very sad, but we are professional soldiers, we are prepared for the dangers and we get on with the business in hand."

The deaths highlight the dangers posed for both the K-For peacekeeping troops and returning refugees by large quantities of unexploded bombs, mines and explosives left behind by the Serbs. While some minefields that are conventional and marked are easy to deal with, there are also booby traps, and ammunition that has been dumped, not necessarily malevolently, Lt-Col Clissitt said.

It is also estimated that almost 10% of the thousands of bombs dropped during the allied air campaign failed to explode.

Unexploded cluster bombs, designed to split into several smaller bomblets after being dropped so they spread their damage over a large area, are a particular menace.

The increasing tide of ethnic Albanian refugees flowing back into Kosovo from neighbouring Macedonia and Albania are adding to the problems for troops engaged in making unexploded ordnance safe.

The United Nations refugee agency yesterday said more than 170,000 Kosovan Albanians had returned to their homes in the past week.

US President Bill Clinton was among those who yesterday voiced his regret at the Gurkhas' deaths.

Speaking on a trip to Skopje, Macedonia, he said he telephoned his concern to British Prime Minister Tony Blair hours after the deaths, and added: "This is dangerous work."

Mr Blair had already paid tribute to the men - who were from a unit of about 100 engineers who specialise in tasks such as mine clearance - saying his thoughts were with their families.

The Prime Minister said the deaths highlighted the dangers our forces were facing in Kosovo. The incident underscored "the bravery of our troops, their courage, their fortitude and the debt we owe them", he said.

Gurkha Major Damar Ghale of the Queen's Gurkha Engineers said fellow Gurkhas had been shocked by the deaths.

Lt Evans, who was single, had been a serving soldier since 1997. He attended the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and the Royal School of Military Engineering at Chatham before being posted to the 36th Engineer Regiment.

He was commander of 'I' Troop, leading 40 men in the 69th Gurkha Field Squadron - a specialist unit within the regiment.

The son of a Welsh family, based in Bristol, he is survived by a sister.

Lt Evans was described as an "extraordinarily good sportsman" who represented the Royal Engineers at rugby.

Sgt Rai, married with two children aged six and four, was born in Bhojpur, East Nepal.

He enlisted into the Brigade of Gurkhas in 1985 from Dharan and joined the Queen's Gurkha Engineers after completing his basic infantry training in Hong Kong.

Sgt Rai had served in Hong Kong, Brunei, Great Britain, Norway, Bosnia, the Falkland Islands, Canada, Kenya and Kosovo.

Major Ghale said: "I knew Sergeant Balaram Rai very, very well.

"He served with me in Hong Kong and other areas like Bosnia and was an outstanding soldier."

The bodies of the two Gurkhas, who were from a contingent of more than 700 of the Nepalese fighters in the province, are expected to be brought back to Britain by tomorrow. - June 23