News-Info-Alerts

Re: JTF-FA News Release

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: January 02, 2003

"JOINT TASK FORCE-FULL ACCOUNTING PUBLIC AFFAIRS
 
December 6, 2002
 
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA - Negotiations for upcoming 2003 POW/MIA search and recovery operations in the Kingdom of Cambodia began on Thursday, December 5, 2002, between U.S. and KOC officials. 
 
In addition to the annually held coordination meeting, this visit marked the first time in the history of U.S. POW/MIA accounting efforts in Cambodia that provincial officials were invited to participate in bi-lateral discussions on December 6, 2002, between the U.S. and Cambodia on the full accounting mission.  The POW/MIA Seminar was held in an effort to increase local awareness and instances of rural Cambodians turning over information and evidence relating to wartime American personnel losses.   
 
The first annual operations assessment was also held to summarize 2002 efforts in Cambodia and familiarize Khmer officials with U.S. intentions to use human remains dogs in 2003 to enhance the success of search teams in locating the remains of lost Americans.  Rhode Island State Police dogs and handlers will be augmenting POW/MIA search teams from Joint Task Force-Full Accounting and the Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii, on the next joint field activity in Vietnam.  The dogs have demonstrated marked success in locating remains as small as a single tooth or drops of blood both in ground and underwater.  More importantly for accounting efforts, during operational trials in the United States, the dogs alerted on remains from as far back as the 1860's, an accomplishment that bodes well for the unique cases in Southeast Asia where some remains have been lost for over 30 years.  If successful in Vietnam, the dogs have been approved by the Cambodian government and will possibly be used there as well.
 
Similar talks begin between U.S. and Socialist Republic of Vietnam officials next week in Hanoi rounding out the 10-day trip for the U.S. officials.  Negotiations will include coordination of upcoming field activities, use of new communications equipment, and tri-lateral investigative work between U.S. POW/MIA search teams and the Vietnamese and Khmer governments seeking to bring Vietnamese combat veterans back to the battlefields of Cambodia where they fought and held control during the war in Southeast Asia.  These veterans' wartime experiences may prove invaluable in determining the fate of missing or unaccounted-for Americans.