THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 7, 1994 TAG: 9406070301
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: 940607 LENGTH: HANOI, VIETNAM
U.S. Army Lt. Col. John C. Cray, commander of the MIA Office in Vietnam, declined to specify the number of remains to be turned over until after the ceremony today at Hanoi's airport.
{REST} But he said it would be the biggest turnover since he assumed his post last June. The largest number of remains turned over since then was 14.
The remains will be flown to the Central Identification Laboratory at Camp Smith, Hawaii, for further analysis.
The turnover is the third since President Clinton removed the 19-year U.S. economic embargo against its former enemy on Feb. 3.
Clinton has said that Vietnam must show further cooperation in resolving missing-in-action cases before the United States will establish full diplomatic relations with Hanoi.
The remains to be turned over were recovered during a 34-day search in central and northern Vietnam.
Teams of American and Vietnamese specialists excavated some of them at helicopter and jet-aircraft crash sites. Vietnamese troops helped by unearthing some 200 unexploded mines and other munitions that blocked one site, Cray said.
Villagers voluntarily turned over other remains, he said.
Hanoi turned over 67 sets of remains last year, almost double the 35 it handed over in 1992. Vietnam has turned over 597 sets of remains since the end of the war, but only 285 of those have been identified as Americans.
The United States lists 2,231 Americans as unaccounted for from the war, including 1,641 in Vietnam, 504 in Laos, 78 in Cambodia and eight in China.
{KEYWORDS} VIETNAM MIA by CNB