
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 6, 1995                   TAG: 9506060132
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: HANOI                                 LENGTH: Medium

U.S. TO INVESTIGATE `LIVE' POWS CLAIM

The U.S. government will investigate a claim by a former member of Congress that as many as 300 American prisoners of war are being held about 60 miles northwest of Hanoi, although previous investigations of similar sightings by the one-time legislator have produced no evidence that live POWs exist.

An investigator with a special Defense Intelligence Agency team in Bangkok arrived Monday in Hanoi, according to Lt. Col. Melvin Richmond, head of the U.S. military office in Hanoi whose mission it is to determine the fate of 1,619 servicemen still listed as missing from the Vietnam War.

That investigator is expected to meet today with Bill Hendon, a former two-term congressman from North Carolina and an activist on the POW-MIA issue who, on Saturday, handcuffed himself to the front gate of the military office. Hendon is claiming that American prisoners were sighted 100 days ago at an underground prison in the mountains outside Hanoi.

He has made similar claims in previous years. In 1989, he was part of a group that offered a $2.4 million reward for the release of any live American POWs.

Monday, Hendon insisted that he is ``absolutely certain'' that live POWs are being held outside Hanoi. ``Let's go to the prison. Let's end the debate,'' Hendon said as he sat in the lobby of a hotel next door to the building that houses Richmond and his staff.

U.S. officials have investigated more than 90 ``live sighting'' reports since 1992 but none has produced evidence of live Americans, Richmond said. ``We have no evidence that there are live Americans being held against their will,'' Richmond said.

Richmond asked Hendon to follow an established procedure for turning over information on live sightings that ``ensures confidentiality and ensures the Vietnamese don't know about the information until the last minute.''

Instead, Hendon, who declined to reveal the source of his information, showed reporters a map with an area supposedly holding the alleged prison circled.

Hendon said he had refused to give the same information to Richmond because he feared it would be turned over to the Vietnamese. But In a letter he faxed Monday to the Vietnam government's Foreign Ministry - and later faxed to some reporters - Hendon included the name and location of the alleged prison.

by CNB