The Department of Defense has announced that the the United States and India have agreed to resume remains recovery activities in parts of Northeastern India.
The Department assesses that there are approximately 400 unaccounted-for service members from some 90 aircraft crashes in the area during World War II.
“This is a critical step toward bringing home our service members lost during World War II,” said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. “The United States and India, working together, can help provide comfort to the families of Americans who were lost during the war.”
In a statement, DOD said “The department deeply appreciates the close cooperation of the government of India in helping our teams resume their critical work. Returning our fallen heroes is a top priority of the Department of Defense.”
The United States possesses information on 16 known crash sites and continues to develop information on others.
The Pentagon’s Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel agency just posted the following shocking and discouraging news item on its website: “WWII Accounting in India
Due to the recent escalation of ethnic violence in northeast India, the government of India has officially postponed all JPAC [Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command] operations in India until spring 2013.” The Government of India owes the families of the servicemen whose recovery will be delayed by this decision a detailed explanation for this decision, responding to these questions: (1) What specific ethnic violence is the Indian Government referring to ?; (2) In view of the fact that India’s Northeast is a very large and diverse region, what specific Indian Northeast states, and what districts within those states, are affected by this violence ? (3) Why can’t India’s vaunted military and police forces protect US crash site recovery teams from this violence? (4) In view of the fact that India has its own crash site recovery teams, why can’t the Indian Government send these teams to US crash sites to recover the remains of the men who died there? (5) Does the Indian Government realize that this incredibly hurful decision flies in the face of its obligations under the Geneva Conventions, to which it is a signatory? (6) Does the Indian Government realize that this decision is a direct affront to the religious sensibilities of a large number of American families, who have waited decades to have their loved ones’ mortal remains returned to them for a proper burial?…Gary Zaetz, spokesman for the families of USAAF B-24 lost in Arunachal Pradesh on January 25, 1944.”