News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Ex-POW Papers Returned

Date: November 07, 2000

"UK to Return War Veterans' Long-Lost Mementos

LONDON, Nov 7, 2000 -- (Reuters) World War Two veterans and their families will travel to London on Tuesday to be reunited with diaries, photographs and service books after more than 50 years.

A government official said the papers, originally taken from British prisoners of war by German soldiers, had been stored for half a century in a Russian vault having been taken to Moscow by Russian troops at the end of the war.

"It is thanks to the Russian Federation that we are now able to turn the clock back and return this material to its original owners or to their families," defense minister Lewis Moonie said in a statement.

Moonie will return the mementos to their rightful place at a ceremony at London's Imperial War Museum.

"I anticipate that for some of the families to see and hold something that belonged to and was held by someone lost long ago will bring a great mixture of memories and emotions," he said.

"I hope that the inevitable sadness will be balanced by proper pride."

Veterans and their relations will travel from all over Britain. They will be joined by representatives from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Nepal and Pakistan, collecting papers to return to their old soldiers.

Russia handed back the papers last year. Since then, the Ministry of Defense has sought to trace their owners. Of the 79 veterans it set out to locate, 72 have so far been found."