Follow-up. EFL.
Laos on Monday handed over to the United States the remains believed to be of U.S. presidential candidate Howard Dean’s brother, an Australian friend and two American soldiers who disappeared in the country decades ago. The remains thought to be of Charles Dean and Australian Neil Sharman were exhumed earlier this month in central Laos following a tip by a Laotian villager. Also excavated from other sites in northeastern Laos were remains suspected to be of two U.S. soldiers killed during the Vietnam War. Their names have not been released. The remains were transferred to four aluminum caskets brought by a U.S. military C-130 cargo plane at the Vientiane airport. An honor guard draped one casket in an Australian flag and the other three in U.S. flags before reloading them on the plane, which flew to Hawaii where a forensic lab will positively identify the remains. ``I am pleased to hand over to you the remains ... Without the cooperation of the local people they would not have been able to find the remains,’’ Laotian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Phongsavath Boupha told the U.S. Ambassador to Laos, Douglas A. Hartwick, in a ceremony at the airport. He called the hand-over ``a symbolic victory’’ in relations between the two countries, adding that Laos wants to put the past behind and move on. ``Today marks another special day for repatriation of remains from the Indochina war,’’ Hartwick said. ``This cooperation is a key element in bilateral relations,’’ he said.
It’s good this was done. I still don’t buy the line that Dean and Sharman were tourists. |