(Via Milinet)
August 10, 2000
Finding Soldiers Said Top Priority
Filed at 12:03 a.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Pursuing reports of American soldiers
still alive a
quarter-century after the end of the Vietnam War remains the top
priority
even though 21,000 alleged sightings have failed to pan out, a
U.S. official
said Wednesday.
Robert L. Jones, deputy assistant secretary of defense for the
POW/Missing
Persons Office, said all the reports have been investigated.
``None has borne
fruit,'' he said.
``There still remains a lot of work to do in that area.''
The number of reports has steadily shrunk since 1973, after
Vietnam said it
returned all American prisoners of war, with only one alleged
sighting for
all of last year, he told reporters at the end of a four-day
visit.
Jones echoed the praise that Defense Secretary William Cohen
gave to Vietnam
when he visited in March and toured a site where U.S. military
forsenic
experts were working.
``I thank the Vietnamese government and people for everything
they have
done,'' Jones said. ``We could not have had the success we have
had without
their assistance.''
Washington is urging Vietnam to conduct more unilateral
searches,
particularly in central Vietnam where some of the fiercest
fighting took
place. Those would supplement monthlong joint operations now
held five or six
times each year.
Jones said the U.S. presidential election would not affect
Washington's
commitment to account for the 2,014 still listed as MIA -- 1,514
in Vietnam;
the rest in Cambodia, Laos and China.
``Our methods may change, but we will continue to seek missing
Americans
until all of them are accounted for,'' he said.
Since January 1993, 249 sets of remains have been repatriated
and returned to
their families, including 28 since Jan. 1, 1999.
Vietnam has recovered the remains of 2,500 of its 300,000 MIAs
with U.S.
assistance, including 800 in the past year after being given
access to U.S.
military archives, Jones said.
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