American’s Release Seen as Hope for MIAs in Cambodia

BANGKOK, Thailand — A U.S. official, heartened by the release of an American veteran who strayed into Cambodia last year, said Friday that he hopes “we can move ahead as well with repatriation of the remains of American servicemen lost in Cambodia during the Indochina war.”

Although remains of scores of Americans listed as missing in the war have been returned by Vietnam and Laos, none have been recovered from Cambodia. Washington has no official ties with the government in Phnom Penh.

Last September, Hun Sen, premier of the Vietnamese-installed regime, told an interviewer that Cambodia had the remains of “quite a number” of Americans killed in the war.

“We are prepared to release them on the basis of humanitarianism,” he added, “but no one has gotten in touch with us, so we have kept them. . . . We have the names, and we have the dog tags.”

Expresses Gratitude

Commenting on Cambodia’s release Thursday of Sterling Brian Bono, U.S. Embassy spokesman Ross Petzing expressed gratitude Friday to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which arranged the release through its office in Phnom Penh.

Petzing said the United States now hopes to see Phnom Penh release the remains of the missing American servicemen, presumably through the Red Cross or some other international humanitarian organization represented in the Cambodian capital.

In January, State Department spokesman Charles Redman said the United States had received no response from Hun Sen’s government to a request, sent through unidentified third-party channels, for the release of the Americans’ remains. According to U.S. records, 83 American servicemen were lost in Cambodia during the war.

Using direct government-to-government contacts, the United States has recovered the authenticated remains of more than 150 Americans from Vietnam and Laos. In every case, Washington has described the return of remains as a humanitarian issue, with no direct bearing on diplomatic recognition. The United States has no embassy in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, and has only a legation in Laos.

Bono, 35, was released Thursday to the custody of his brother, Victor, and returned to Bangkok en route to his home in Las Animas, Colo. He was arrested in May, 1987, in the western province of Battambang. He told an Associated Press reporter in Phnom Penh last week that he had been looking for his son in a refugee camp on the Thai-Cambodian border and strayed across the frontier.

He said he had been treated well by Cambodian authorities in his 13 months of captivity. He added that he had served with the U.S. Army in Vietnam but offered no details on the son whom he said he was seeking.