From the From the March, 1999 Coalition Newsletter
DPMO Meets with Chinese Officials to Discuss the Full Accounting
At the end of
January of this year, DPMO head Bob Jones took a team of specialists into China
to discuss the Korean War POW/MIA accounting effort. The Chinese controlled the
POWs during the Korean War and their wartime records, no doubt, would be very
helpful in resolving the fates of our missing servicemen. Mr. Jones met in
Beijing with Mr. Cheng Ming Ming, of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to
discuss cooperation by the Chinese.
China has been
helpful in the past with U.S. efforts to account for men missing from WWII and
from the Vietnam War. China has also helped facilitate the logistics of
excavating for remains in North Korea over the past few years.
Agreement on
Korean War archival research has remained elusive, however. Chinese officials
report that their Korean War records are still classified and cannot be
reviewed by American investigators. Mr. Jones offered to enter into a contract
with the Chinese where-by they would search their own archives for relevant
information, but that offer was refused. Cheng Ming Ming did, however, request
case files on six to twelve men and promised to follow up with an inquiry.
Also unsuccessful
have been attempts to learn information about specific cases that have already
been presented to the Chinese. These cases were those of some of the men who we
know were alive in captivity at the end of the war who did not make it home.
The U.S. delegation was told that no information could be found on these
individuals, despite extensive research.
The U.S.
Government has taken a firm stand with the Chinese government on various human
rights issues. The annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on human
rights will take place in Geneva at the end of March. Congress unanimously
voted to urge the U.S. delegation at that meeting to sponsor a U.N. resolution
condemning Beijing for human rights abuses in China and Tibet.
We hope that our
government will show as much concern at these same high levels for the rights
of missing American servicemen as it does for the rights of Chinese citizens
abroad. We should see votes and resolutions in support of the fullest possible
accounting for our own servicemen certainly as often as we see these statements
in support of the rights of citizens of other countries.