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

DATE: THURSDAY, December 16, 1993                   TAG: 9312160128
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A15   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DA NANG, VIETNAM                                LENGTH: Medium

MIA SEARCH EFFORT PRAISED

"They are cooperating at a very high level," Lord said. "I think if you look over this whole year, we've made very good progress indeed - tangible progress."

Lord spoke on the last day of his three-day trip to press Vietnam for further progress on the issue of missing Americans. Unsolved MIA cases continue to block normal relations between the United States and Vietnam.

Later, he flew in a Russian-built helicopter to the remote Vietnam-Laos border town of Lao Bao in Quang Tri province, 110 miles northwest of Da Nang.

He and several other U.S. officials reviewed the results of the first coordinated search by Americans, Vietnamese and Laotians for evidence of U.S. servicemen missing from the Vietnam War.

Investigators from the three countries were combing the rugged border region for clues to 56 MIA cases. The search began Dec. 3 and ends Monday.

"The fact [that] we're doing it is progress," Lord said. "Certainly, all indications are that the Vietnamese prepared very well for this."

Meanwhile, the U.S. Defense Department announced in Washington that the remains of nine men listed as missing in Laos have been identified. Laotian authorities turned over the remains in February 1992.

A Defense Department statement released Wednesday by the U.S. MIA office in Hanoi said all nine were Navy fliers whose twin-engine OP-2E observation aircraft was shot down over Laos on Feb. 17, 1968.

This reduces the number of missing servicemen to 2,239. There are 505 cases remaining in Laos and 1,648 in Vietnam.

Lord attended a ceremony Monday in Hanoi in which Vietnam turned over eight sets of body fragments. Ordinary Vietnamese citizens turned up most of the remains, he said. That brings the total for the year to 67 sets of remains of MIAs.

Lord and his delegation heard Wednesday from two Americans investigating the cases of 80 people last known to be alive. "They say the cooperation from the Vietnamese is better than ever in their experience," he said.

Lord said Washington should recognize Vietnam's help in resolving the remaining MIA cases, but he declined to say what gestures the United States should make - for example, a further relaxation of the 19-year economic embargo.