News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Laos

Date: August 18, 2000

Vientiane Times Aug. 18, 2000
Bones not bombs, says US official

A US MIAs mission visited Laos last week to further discuss the issue with Lao officials as there are still over 400 Americans missing in action (MIAs) in Laos.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Robert L. Jones told the press during his official visit to Laos August 11-13 that he planned to meet with important government officials to consult on the work of Joint Task Force-Full Accounting Detachment Three in Laos. He planned to go to where the search for American MIAs is being conducted in the northern province of Huaphanh.

More than two million tones of bombs were dropped by the United States during the Indochina war in Laos. The Unexploded Ordnance program UXO-LAOS reports that many of the bombs dropped by US planes on Lao people during the war did not detonate. When asked if the US government felt any responsibility to help Laos to deal with the unexploded ordnance, Mr. Jones replied that his office was not directly responsible. However, he said, the US government had provided more than US$ 13 million to assist Laos to resolve UXO problems. His team was conducting an operation to excavate aircraft crash sites. If his team found exploded ordnance his experts would take that ordnance and centralize into one location and report to the Lao Defense Ministry, so that Lao experts trained by the US can deal with that unexploded ordnance.

The UXO-LAOS work-plan for this year reported that over 107,000 tones of UXO were destroyed between 1996 and 1999 with donations from more than ten generous countries for the unexploded ordnance program of clearance in the Lao PDR.

Mr. Jones said: "My office has encouraged a program called Veteran-to-Veteran and has asked American veterans who served in Laos, who might have information related to missing Lao persons or may have materials relating to soldiers who were disabled during the war, to provide such information and materials to Lao government to facilitate accounting and/or humanitarian assistance to those disabled."

Asked about responsibility for people who were injured by UXO, he replied that the US had developed training and sponsored UXO-LAOS, and provided US$ 1.5 million a year.

He said that his trip here has emphasized that there are issues remaining for the relationship between the US and Laos, which continues to be a high priority.

Asked about the current status of American MIAs, he said that there are 2,014 in Southeast Asia (427 in Laos). The US government is actively pursuing 1,372 missing Americans in Southeast Asia, including 401 in Laos.

Since 1973, 569 Americans have been accounted for Southeast Asia (142 in Laos). There were 1,170 Americans in the 'further pursuit' category (373 in Laos), 202 Americans in the 'deferred category' (28 in Laos), and there were 642 Americans in the 'no further pursuit' category (26 in Laos).