[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 61 (Friday, March 29, 2002)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 15095-15096]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-7791]


 
 
                         Presidential Documents 
 
 

  Federal Register / Vol. 67, No. 61 / Friday, March 29, 2002 / 
Presidential Documents  

 ___________________________________________________________________

 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 15095]]

                Presidential Determination No. 2002-11 of March 20, 
                2002

                
Cooperation by Vietnam in Accounting for United 
                States Prisoners of War and Missing in Action

                Memorandum for the Secretary of State

                As provided in section 610 of the Departments of 
                Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary and Related 
                Agencies Appropriations Act, 2002, Public Law 107-77, 
                and laws referenced therein, I hereby determine, based 
                on all information available to the United States 
                Government, that the Government of the Socialist 
                Republic of Vietnam is fully cooperating in good faith 
                with the United States in the following four areas 
                related to achieving the fullest possible accounting 
                for Americans unaccounted for as a result of the 
                Vietnam War:

1)

resolving discrepancy cases, live sightings, and field activities;

2)

recovering and repatriating American remains;

3)

accelerating efforts to provide documents that will help lead to the 
fullest possible accounting of prisoners of war and missing in action (POW/
MIAs); and

4)

providing further assistance in implementing trilateral investigations with 
Laos.

                I further determine that the appropriate laboratories 
                associated with POW/MIA accounting are thoroughly 
                analyzing remains, material, and other information and 
                fulfilling their responsibilities as set forth in 
                subsection (B) of section 609 of the Departments of 
                Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and 
                Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1999, which is 
                incorporated by reference in section 610.

                The Department of Justice has advised that section 610 
                is unconstitutional because it purports to use a 
                condition on appropriations as a means to direct my 
                execution of responsibilities that the Constitution 
                commits exclusively to the President. I am providing 
                this determination as a matter of comity, while 
                reserving the position that the condition enacted in 
                section 610 is unconstitutional.

                In making this determination, I have taken into account 
                all information available to the United States 
                Government as reported to me, the full range of ongoing 
                accounting activities in Vietnam, including joint and 
                unilateral Vietnamese efforts, and the concrete results 
                we have attained as a result. As we look to further 
                strengthen cooperation, Vietnam's unilateral provision 
                of POW/MIA-related documents and records should be 
                improved, focused initially on archival data pertaining 
                to Americans captured, missing, or killed in areas of 
                Laos and Cambodia under wartime Vietnamese control. 
                Vietnam should also focus greater attention on locating 
                and providing information on discrepancy cases, with 
                priority on those last known alive in captivity or in 
                immediate proximity to capture, and to locating and 
                repatriating the remains of those who died while in 
                Vietnamese control that have not yet been returned.

                Finally, in making this determination, I wish to 
                reaffirm my continuing personal commitment to the 
                entire POW/MIA community, especially to the immediate 
                families, relatives, friends, and supporters of these 
                brave individuals, and to reconfirm that achieving the 
                fullest possible accounting of our prisoners of war and 
                missing in action remains one of the most important 
                priorities in our relations with Vietnam.

[[Page 15096]]

                You are authorized and directed to report this 
                determination to the appropriate committees of the 
                Congress and to publish it in the Federal Register.

                    (Presidential Sig.)B

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    Washington, March 20, 2002.

[FR Doc. 02-7791
Filed 03-28-02; 8:45 am]
Billing code 4710-10-M