`Tangible progress' made in Vietnam MIA

`Tangible progress' made in Vietnam MIA

WASHINGTON (AFP): Vietnam has made "tangible progress" to
determine the fate of missing U.S. soldiers and prisoners of war
in recent months, President Bill Clinton said in a letter to
congress Wednesday.

Among the advances Clinton cited in a report to Congress, he
said Vietnam had taken action to reduce the number of U.S.
individuals involved in the "last known alive discrepancy cases"
in Vietnam from 73 to 55.

Vietnam has opened access to sensitive military areas in Cam
Ranh Bay and Haiphong Harbor.

Vietnam has also stepped up efforts to seek out more
information on documents scattered among various Vietnamese
government agencies.

And Vietnam has opened an office in Ho Chi Minh City dedicated
to recovering the remains of U.S. personnel who died in the south
and encourage private citizens to turn over remains.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives passed a non-binding
voice vote calling on the administration to keep the focus of the
U.S. liaison office opened earlier this year in Vietnam on the
missing U.S. personnel question.

The representatives said the main function of the office
should be to work toward learning the fate of the personnel.

When Clinton made his Feb. 3 decision to lift the 19-year
embargo against the Vietnamese, he said it was in part based on
evidence the Vietnamese were moving to resolve the fate of 2,238
U.S. personnel listed as missing in action.

But he said continued progress in normalizing relations was
predicated on continued efforts to settle the POW-MIA question.
At the time, the move drew the scorn of many veterans' groups and
missing soldiers' families that wanted to keep the embargo in
place to pressure Vietnam for more cooperation.

Clinton said in his letter that "despite this tangible
progress, I believe there are additional steps Vietnam could take
to help achieve the fullest possible accounting..."

Among those categories, Clinton said the Vietnamese should
provide a comprehensive report on the 84 special remains cases
pending and providing additional documents.

Clinton's list also included Vietnam's giving the government
of neighboring Laos advance notification of Vietnamese witnesses
who would be asked to travel to Laos for U.S.-Vietnamese-Laotian
trilateral investigations.