News-Info-Alerts

Re: NLF Update

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: January 27, 2003

"Update Line
Jan. 27, 2003: 30th Anniversary of the Signing of the Paris Peace Accords

STILL MISSING: According to the Department of Defense, there are still 1,891 Americans still missing from the Vietnam War, 1,444 in Vietnam, 382 in Laos, 57 in Cambodia and 8 in the territorial waters of the PRC. The names of nine Americans recently accounted for have not yet been released, but their remains were recovered during several US-Lao joint operations, the latest in February of last year, and officially identified on December 11th.

DASD IN CAMBODIA: Jerry Jennings, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs and Director of the DPMO, will arrive in Phnom Penh, Cambodia tomorrow for talks with senior officials. The DoD-hosted Personnel Accounting Conference, held from January 21-24th, brought together policy and operations officials from all USG organizations involved in the issue to gain consensus on policy and approach to achieve accounting objectives. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Director of DIA VADM Lowell Jacoby were guest speakers; both made clear their full support for priority US efforts to account for missing US personnel.

LEAGUE DELEGATION TO SOUTHEAST ASIA: League Chairman of the Board Jo Anne Shirley, former Reagan Administration Director for Asian Affairs, now League Adviser, Richard Childress and Executive Director Ann Mills Griffiths will travel to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia for talks with officials in each country to try to expedite accounting efforts. The delegation will visit the new U.S. base camp in southern Laos and the incident site where two American journalists were last known alive in captivity in Cambodia.

JOINT FIELD OPERATIONS: Large-scale field operations in Laos and Cambodia began January 16th and will continue over the next 30 days. Cambodian officials are conducting interviews of sources with useful information to augment efforts of the DIA Stony Beach specialist, now assigned full-time in Phnom Penh. Between now and the month-long joint field operations that will commence on February 18th, Vietnamese officials are reportedly conducting unilateral investigations.

LEAGUE OFFICIAL MEETS WITH RUSSIAN LEADERS: In December, League Executive Director Ann Mills Griffiths met in Moscow with the Russian Co-Chairman of the US-Russia Commission on POW/MIA Affairs, the Commission's Chairman of the Vietnam War Working Group, and former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov. The primary focus was on gaining greater access by US specialists to archival records and sources of information. Minister Primakov, now head of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, stated his view that classified Vietnam War records should be declassified and made available for researchers.

NOTES: Start planning now to attend the League's 34th Annual Meeting, June 26-26-29th, again in Arlington, VA.

The League is nationally eligible for the Combined Federal Campaign, #1174.

POW/MIA car window decals are $20 per 100 and lapel pins are $3 each or 2/$5, by sending a check to the League office.

For added information on any subject, please contact the League's web site at www.pow-miafamilies.org or call the national office at 703-465-7432.

The National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia
1005 North Glebe Road
Suite 170
Arlington, Virginia 22201
(TEL) 703-465-7432
Federal Tax ID #23-7071242"