US embassy cable - 03RANGOON489

UNCLAS RANGOON 000489 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: MOPS, PREL, BM 
SUBJECT:  A VISIT TO A WWII REMAINS RECOVERY SITE 
 
1.  SUMMARY:  COM, DASD Jerry Jennings (POW and MIA 
Affairs), DATT, and others inspected ongoing WWII remains 
recovery operations in Burma's northernmost Kachin State on 
March 23.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  After flying from Rangoon to the Kachin capital of 
Myitkyina aboard a USAF C-12 out of Bangkok, the USG 
delegation paid a courtesy call on the Burmese military's 
Northern Region Commander, Major General Maung Maung Swe. 
The COM, DASD, and party then flew 30 miles northwest of 
Myitkyina on a Lao West Coast leased helicopter to Burma 3, 
the crash site of a C-47 lost during WWII. 
 
3.  The CILHI recovery operation was being carried out on a 
steep slope at an altitude of approximately 7,500 feet. 
Most of the airplane wreckage visible on photographs taken 
some months earlier had been removed by pilferers prior to 
the team's arrival.  Still, the photographs provided enough 
identifying data to apparently correlate the crash site to a 
C-47A lost on August 19, 1944, with a manifested crew of 
seven. 
 
4.  After inspecting the recovery operation in Kachin State, 
the group flew back to Rangoon and met with S-1 General Khin 
Nyunt.  (NOTE: Khin Nyunt, the regime's third-ranking 
official and Chief of Military Intelligence, has been a 
staunch supporter of the remains recovery operation.  End 
Note)  During the call, DASD Jennings thanked the GOB for 
its good cooperation throughout the recovery operation and 
for providing increased security for the American recovery 
team due to the war in Iraq.  He asked the GOB to help 
protect crash sites from pilfering to allow U.S. 
anthropologists to better assess them, and to review the 
possibility of using GOB helicopters in support of future 
remains recovery operations. 
 
5.  General Khin Nyunt stated that the level of cooperation 
for this project was possible because of the cease-fires the 
GOB had reached with former ethnic insurgents that had long 
battled the GOB in the area.  He also gave assurances that 
the GOB would take measures to protect the sites from 
pilferage. 
 
6.  Comment:  The GOB's willingness to assist and its 
ability to gain cooperation from various cease-fire groups 
in Kachin State increases prospects for the success of 
future recovery operations.  Several probable crash sites 
have already been identified for possible excavation in the 
future.  Reporting of additional crash sites has already 
risen as the U.S. presence in Myitkyina has sparked the 
local population's interest in remains recovery operations. 
End Comment. MARTINEZ