American U.N. police officer found dead in Kosovo

Tuesday, March 19th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Police are investigating the death of an American U.N. police officer whose body was found in his apartment in the provincial capital over the weekend, police said Tuesday.

The officer was identified as Jerry Ross, 36, of Texas. His hometown was not available, but police spokesman Barry Fletcher said Ross came from a rural area.

Ross, whose body was discovered Sunday morning, had been in Kosovo for nearly 18 months, working at the U.N. police's criminal investigative unit in Pristina.

Some 4,000 international officers have served with the U.N. police force in Kosovo since June 1999, when the United Nations took over the administration of the Serb province after NATO's 78-day air war. The war forced an end to former President Slobodan Milosevic's campaign of oppression against the ethnic Albanian majority.