News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Release of EP-3 Crew In The Works

Date: April 11, 2001

"Report: U.S. Air Crew To Be Freed


BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said Wednesday that the detained crew of a U.S. spy plane were to be released, although he did not set a time, state media reported.

The White House also announced they were to be released.

Tang said the 24 crew members would be released as soon as ''appropriate travel procedures'' were completed, said a statement read on television and radio.

The crew of the U.S. Navy EP-3E surveillance plane have been held on Hainan island in the South China Sea since April 1. They made an emergency landing there after a mid-air collision with a Chinese fighter jet.

Tang said the crew were being released on ''humanitarian grounds,'' according to the statement.

''China puts great importance on its relations with the United States,'' Tang said.

Tang urged Washington to cooperate in settling the dispute, and to do nothing that would damage relations between the two governments.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported that U.S. Ambassador Joseph Prueher delivered a letter Wednesday afternoon to the Chinese Foreign Ministry saying the U.S. government was ''very sorry'' about the incident.

''Please convey to the Chinese people and to the family of pilot Wang Wei that we are very sorry for their loss,'' Xinhua quoted the letter as saying.

The letter goes on to say, according to Xinhua, that Washington is ''very sorry the entering of China's airspace and landing did not have verbal clearance.''

China has accused the U.S. pilot of illegally entering Chinese territory by making the emergency landing on Hainan without obtaining permission in advance.

The American letter expressed appreciation for ''China's efforts to see to the well being'' of the crew."