March 2000

Summary of news for the entire month.
For recent and daily news, please go to: InterNetwork

00 MAR 00: 2,029 Americans remain 'officially' unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War: ARMY: 640 (VN-10, VS-488; LA-107; CB-35); NAVY: 412 (VN-281, VS-92; LA-28; CB-3; CH/OW-8); USMC: 262 (VN-24, VS-203; LA-21; CB-14); USAF: 675 (VN-233; VS-165; LA-260; CB-17); and COAST GUARD: 1 (VS-1). 39 civilians remain unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War: VS-22, LA-12, and CB-5. 554 Americans have been accounted-for post 1973: VN-402, LA-143, CB-7, and CH-2. Persian Gulf War - unsatisfactory accounting. Korean War - 8,139 remain unaccounted-for, 42 possible remains returned, 4 identifications. World War II - Over 78,000 remain unaccounted-for.

01 MAR 00: A summary and portions of the 'Russian Memoirs' was made available. DPMO offered 18 pages of transcribed accounts, a summary, and line art images. The material ay be found at - http://www.aiipowmia.com/reports/rusyn1.html The 18 pages provided list the 22 names that the Russian emigre recorded as American POWs, as well as first-hand and second-hand accounts of live sightings. The emigre goes on to recount that there were other names written down but in order to insure his personal safety while in the Gulag system, the papers were either ditched or destroyed. The memoirs cover US POWs from the World War II era through to Korea-Cold War era.

02 MAR 00: Once again President Clinton has certified that Vietnam is doing a 'superb' job and certified the communist country. The document is available as Presidential Determination No. 2000-14.

Forgotten no more - With the 50th anniversary of the start of the Korean War just months away, a number of Korea War related material and sites are worth visiting.
For a complete listing of Korean War POWs and MIAs - http://www.aiipowmia.com/koreacw/kwpw_menu.html
Korean War 50th Anniversary Home Page - USG - http://korea50.army.mil/
The Korean War Museum- http://www.theforgottenvictory.org/
National Korean War Museum - http://www.koreanwarmuseum.org/
The Korean War Year By Year - http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/6808/
Korean War Anniversary Site - http://www.tcsaz.com/koreanwar.html
Examining The Korean War - Oral Histories - http://mcel.pacificu.edu/as/students/stanley/home.html
The Korean War Project - POW-MIA Links, Lists & Info - http://www.koreanwar.org/
Korean War Historical Documents - http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/1953/index.html
Korean War Veterans Memorial Homepage - NPS/USG - http://www.nps.gov/kwvm/index2.htm
Korea 2000 Foundation - http://www.uskorea2000.org/
Kids and Korea - A Teachers/Library Lesson Plan Guide - http://www.rsa.lib.il.us/korea/korea1.htm
Cold War Museum - http://coldwar.org/
Other Perspectives - China/South Korea
Korean War FAQ - http://centurychina.com/history/krwarfaq.html

For reports, testimony and lists from the Korean War, please visit our Archives, Alpha Listing and use our onsite Search Engine at - http://www.aiipowmia.com/aiisearch.html

AII POW-MIA does not endorse any offsite material, organization or individual. For information purposes only.

03 MAR 00: After 47 years as a POW, another South Korean man has escaped the Communist country and fled to freedom. South Korea's National Intelligence Service said the 70-year old Suh Byong-ryol was captured by Chinese troops in 1953. He was forced into slave labor in cola mines and collective farms. He escaped in late 1998 and has been living in hiding, most likely in China, while making his way to freedom. The recent spate of South Korean POWs held by communist North Korea is a prime example of survival. Although WW II Japanese soldiers surfaced after 50 years, they had lived primarily in caves and off the land. Whereas the South Korean escapees remained, for the most part, in hostile captivity and were subjected to slave labor, famine and extreme privation.These men prove that survival, even under the most austere of circumstances is indeed possible.

04 MAR 00: In a major breakthrough during the three-day visit in Beijing last month, Chen offered to work with Mr. Jones to establish an oral history program that would allow U.S. researchers to interview Chinese veterans of the Korean War. He also agreed to facilitate U.S.-China academic exchanges focusing on Korean War research. "The oral history program is a significant step forward on Korean War accounting efforts with China, and access to Chinese army archival materials would be an excellent next step," he said. "We believe the Chinese hold the key to resolving some of our MIA cases from the war since they managed many of the POW camps. We're looking forward to real progress in those areas we discussed with Mr. Chen," added Jones.

As a follow-up to information gained from Vietnamese documents that helped to identify Vietnamese units responsible for specific aircraft downings along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, DPMO analysts have over the past year introduced a new kind of lead for Vietnamese unilateral investigators. Because many of the units identified are known to be responsible for more than one aircraft loss, analysts are now directing Vietnamese investigators to focus their investigations on veterans and records of a single unit, rather than instructing them to pursue their investigations on a case-by-case basis. Known as the multi-case lead, its difference from past leads appears to be small, but both U.S. and Vietnamese analysts agree that leads consolidated in this manner have led to more comprehensive investigations and more efficient use of resources. Since its introduction, the multi-case lead has helped to identify a network of Vietnamese veterans who as a group have added considerably to what DPMO analysts know about losses along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

05 MAR 00: Former British prisoners of war filed a slave labor lawsuit against a Japanese company, using a new California law that specifically allows such cases against foreign companies. The lawsuit, filed in Orange County Superior Court on behalf of all British and Allied prisoners of war between 1941 and 1945, seeks all profits their work brought Japan Energy Corp., formerly known as the Nippon Mining Company. Attorneys estimate those profits run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. "We starved and were beaten to provide profits for this company," said Arthur Titherington. They are responsible for systematically torturing hundreds of men and profiting from their labor. This is perhaps our last chance to make book." The lawsuit accuses the company of participating in the beatings, starvation and ultimately the deaths of prisoners of war at the Kinkaseki copper mine. Of the 523 prisoners who were sent to work in the mine, court documents said only 93 were left alive when the camp was liberated in 1945.

13 MAR 00: Peering into a mud hole, U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen saw for himself the heroic efforts - and possibly the futility - of America's quest to return home the remains of 2,029 servicemen still missing from the Vietnam War. In that hole stood a mud-caked forensic anthropologist, Dennis Danielson, and a dozen others lifting slabs of earth into metal buckets. "We will do whatever we can to bring some peace of mind to the families who have lost their loved ones" in the war that cost more than 58,000 American lives, Cohen told reporters today at the excavation site, thought to be the location of a downed U.S. aircraft. "We are making every conceivable effort to find the remains and bring them home," he added. Resolving the remaining missing-in-action cases, Cohen said, is "the very highest of our priorities." It also is the main foundation upon which Washington and Hanoi are attempting to build a military-to-military relationship a generation after the last U.S. combat forces withdrew from Vietnam in defeat. Cohen thanked the Vietnamese - who lost an estimated 3 million of their own people during the war - for their cooperation in searching for missing U.S. servicemen. Cohen said the main focus of his two-day visit will be emphasizing the importance of joint U.S.-Vietnamese efforts to find, recover and repatriate the remains of American servicemen missing from the war.

14 MAR 00: The President recently issued Presidential Determination No. 99-12, reporting his assessment of cooperation from Vietnam on POW/MIA accounting. The text of that document is summarized below:

"As provided under section 609 of the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1999, as contained in the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999, Public Law 105-277, I hereby determine, based on all information available to the United States Government, that the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is fully cooperating in good faith with the United States in the following four areas related to achieving the fullest possible accounting for Americans unaccounted for as a result of the Vietnam War:
resolving discrepancy cases, live sightings, and field activities; recovering and repatriating American remains;
accelerating efforts to provide documents that will help lead to the fullest possible accounting of POW/MIAs;
and, providing further assistance in implementing trilateral investigations with Laos.

I further determine that the appropriate laboratories associated with POW/MIA accounting are thoroughly analyzing remains, material, and other information and fulfilling their responsibilities as set forth in subsection (B) of section 609, and information pertaining to this accounting is being made available to immediate family members in compliance with 50 U.S.C. 435 note. I have been advised by the Department of Justice that section 609 is unconstitutional because it purports to use a condition on appropriations as a means to direct my execution of responsibilities that the Constitution commits exclusively to the President.

I am providing this determination, as a matter of comity with the Congress, while reserving the position that the condition enacted in section 609 is unconstitutional. In making this determination, I have taken into account all information available to the United States Government as reported to me, including the full range of ongoing accounting activities in Vietnam, joint and unilateral Vietnamese efforts, and the concrete results we have attained as a result of these efforts. Finally, in making this determination, I wish to reaffirm my continuing personal commitment to the entire POW/MIA community, especially to the immediate families, relatives, friends, and supporters of these brave individuals, and to reconfirm that the central, guiding principle of my Vietnam policy is to achieve the fullest possible accounting of our prisoners of war and missing in action.

You [Secretary of State] are authorized and directed to report this determination to the appropriate committees of the Congress and to publish it in the Federal Register-WILLIAM J. CLINTON"

15 MAR 00: SecDef Cohen while visiting an excavation site shook hands with some of the Americans. He expressed his "deep gratitude" to all those sifting through the mud for airplane parts and bone shards. Cohen also thanked the Vietnamese -- who lost an estimated 3 million of their own people during the war -- for their cooperation in searching for missing U.S. servicemen. Later, in a Hanoi dinner toast to his Vietnamese hosts, Cohen said the diggers are "seeking to heal the pain of a family who waits on their work."

16 MAR 00: Two servicemen missing in action from the Vietnam War have been accounted for and are being returned to their families for burial in the United States. They are identified as Navy Cmdr. James W. Hall, Los Angeles; and Marine Maj. Charles E. Finney, Saltillo, MS. On Oct. 28, 1972, Hall took off from the carrier USS America in his A-7C Corsair on a surface-to-air missile suppression mission. Over the target area in Nghe An province, North Vietnam, Hall was heard to radio to his wingman, "Two SAMs (surface-to-air missiles) lifting at 12 o'clock." No other radio messages were heard. The first missile missed his wingman, but the second struck Hall's aircraft. No parachute was observed, and no emergency radio beepers were heard. In 1989, Vietnam repatriated to the United States 15 boxes allegedly containing the remains of U.S. servicemen. One was believed to be Hall, but forensic science at the time could not confirm an identification. His case was placed in a hold status pending the receipt of new evidence or the development of new forensic techniques that would assist in the identification. Joint U.S.-Vietnamese teams, led by the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, conducted investigations and excavations at suspected crash sites in 1993 and 1994. They found no remains, but did recover several pilot-related items. Mitochondrial DNA testing assisted in confirming the identity of the remains recovered in 1989. On March 17, 1969, Finney was flying in an A-6A aircraft on a night armed reconnaissance mission over Laos. Crewmen from other aircraft in the area observed an explosion in the vicinity of the target, then a second explosion nearby which was believed to be that of Finney's aircraft. There were no parachutes sighted and no emergency beepers were heard. Search and rescue efforts were terminated several days later when no signs of survivors were found. In 1995 and 1999, joint U.S.-Lao teams interviewed local villagers in the area of the crash, and then conducted an excavation in Savannakhet province. A local worker turned over a military identification tag relating to Finney's fellow crewmember. The team also recovered numerous pieces of aircraft wreckage, personal effects and possible human remains. This evidence aided in the final identification.

17 MAR 00: U.S. and Republic of Korea officials have reached tentative agreement on a broad range of provisions to enhance combined operations in South Korea to recover the remains of American servicemen missing in action from the Korean War. Meeting in Seoul with officials of the Korean Ministry of National Defense (MND) earlier this week, a high-level team from the Defense Department's POW/Missing Personnel Office and the Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii (CILHI) agreed to procedures and discussed several locations for combined recovery operations in 2000. These talks broaden existing recovery operations in the Republic of Korea. CILHI specialists presented potential recovery locations where they believe additional American remains may be recovered. Additionally, the officials discussed gaining access to Korean War veterans who may have personal knowledge of the loss or burial sites of Americans. Both sides expect recovery operations to start by early June. Between 1951-55, Army graves registration teams recovered approximately 25,000 remains in the south, all but 400 of which were identified and returned to their families. CILHI has conducted 10 recovery operations over the past two decades in the south, leading to the identification of three missing American servicemen. U.S. and ROK officials established a framework to share technical assistance and operational experience during South Korea's three-year effort to account for their own missing from the war. Republic of Korea officials agreed to share any information gathered from veterans, witnesses and archives that might lead to the recovery of missing Americans as they undertake this ambitious recovery effort. U.S. officials offered access to historical and archival data that might aid MND in its search for potential recovery sites. Additionally, CILHI is prepared to provide the South Koreans assistance in a number of technical areas.

19 MAR 00: A South Korean prisoner of war has returned home after nearly a half century of captivity in North Korea, Seoul's main intelligence agency said Friday. Suh Byong-ryol, 70, arrived in Seoul from a third country where he had been living in hiding since escaping North Korea in December 1998, the National Intelligence Service said. He arrived with three North Koreans, including a 65-year-old woman and a 38-year-old woman, it said. The agency said Suh was captured by Chinese troops in 1953, shortly before the three-year Korean War ended in a truce. He had been forced to work in coalmines and on collective farms in North Korea, it said. China sent troops to help North Korea fight South Korean troops during the war. American-led U.N. troops fought on the South's side. The agency gave no further details. It usually uses the term "third country" to refer to China.

21 MAR 00: Following is a summary of steps in FOIA Litigation. We are at step 5. 1. Exhaustion of administrative FOIA remedies; 2. File the complaint [law suit]: Jurisdiction, federal court; 3. CIA Files the answer; 4. Motion by CIA to have case dismissed (summary judgment); 5. Motion for Discovery by us the plaintiff, contending that discovery is needed to challenge CIAs assertion of exemption; 6. In camera inspection, of withheld records, the court can review any classified records; 7. Trials may be required in a FOIA case when there are material facts in dispute Motion for reconsideration or clarification; 8. We seek Attorneys fees and Sanctions; and, 9. Appeals. The CIA can appeal an unfavorable decision. If all documents are not released we will appeal.

23 MAR 00: A Ukrainian general who lost both his legs fighting in Afghanistan appealed for information about 72 soldiers still missing during the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. ``There are still 72 soldiers who have not returned, we want to know if they are alive or dead, and if they want to come home,'' said Major-General Sergii Chervonopyskyi, who now heads the state-level Ukraine veterans' affairs committee. ``We want to tell them the motherland has not forgotten them,'' said Chervonopyskyi, who lost his legs when an anti-tank mine blew up the army vehicle he was riding in. Chervonopyskyi is in Pakistan with a delegation, which includes a representative of the Ukrainian Red Cross, as part of efforts to trace the missing soldiers. The former Soviet Union had 311 soldiers listed as missing in action in Afghanistan.

25 MAR 00: Workers laying water pipelines found 25 sets of remains of what are believed to be Viet Cong soldiers killed during the Tet offensive in 1968, a local official said Monday. The workers also found hammocks, sandals and AK-47 ammunition in a former graveyard where fierce fighting took place, said Le Ngoc Cu of the Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs department of Tam Ky, a town in central Quang Nam province. No identifications have been made, Cu said.

28 MAR 00: Wearing a bright red blazer and a big smile, Mary Previte walks up behind a man she credits with saving her life and says: ``Lieutenant.'' Retired Lt. James Hannon rises from his seat and turns to face her. ``Can I hug a hero?'' she asks, as the two embrace in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel. The meeting came nearly 55 years after Hannon and five other paratroopers landed in Weihsien, China, to rescue Previte and about 1,400 other civilians held captive by Japanese troops during World War II. Previte, now a 67-year-old New Jersey assemblywoman, came to Southern California to meet Hannon and to speak Sunday of her ``amazing'' rescue to a veterans group. Previte was only age 12 when Hannon, five other paratroopers and a Chinese interpreter landed on Aug. 17, 1945, outside the gates of the Weihsien Civilian Assembly Center. ``Having been a prisoner in five different camps, I know some of the hazards and I know some of the attitudes that you might find in camps,'' he said. ``We didn't know they were civilians. I expected distressed soldiers.'' ``I cannot believe this,'' Previte said while holding Hannon's hand. ``It is like the end of a story.''

31 MAR 00: REMINDER - DOD/DPMO Family Updates - Apr 14 / Apr 15 - Indianapolis, Ind.

POW-MIA Issue Update April 2000