European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 1, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday August 1, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 9 this photo supposedly shot at a pow Camp in Laos purportedly shows an american  pow Bangkok Thailand apr an american Mia activist tuesday said that he was investigating a photograph purportedly showing a . Prisoner of War at a Camp he has been told holds More than 200 americans in a mountainous area of Laos. . Officials have cast serious doubt on another photo recently released by a private Mia group in the United states purportedly showing three american fliers being held in Indochina. That photograph renewed Hopes that some of the 2,274 americans listed As missing in action in Vietnam Laos and Cambodia May still be alive although those countries have repeatedly said they hold no american pos. The search for missing americans in Indochina has attracted a number of swindlers who often try to sell a a evidence that includes identification tags photographs aircraft parts and Bones. Most have proved to be either fraudulent or impossible to verify especially photographs which can easily be doctored. The most recent photograph shows a Cauca Sian Man dressed in shorts and a shirt holding the hand of a girl. A1 Shinkle who has been involved in the search for mias Over the past decade said one of his agents obtained the photograph inside Laos where it was allegedly taken april 15,1990.shinkle a former . Military intelligence officer said the agent told him the american was being held with 218 other . Pos in a Camp about 60 Miles Southeast of the laotian town of tche Pone closely the vietnamese Border. He said he was trying to get More information about the photo. . Team in Cambodia Bangkok Thailand apr a team of . Military experts on wednesday began an unprecedented investigation in Cambodia into claims americans were seen alive there after the Vietnam War ended in 1975. The team is investigating a photographs that purportedly show a live sightings a said Gloria Berbena a spokeswoman for the . Embassy in Thailand. A this is the first time a team has been allowed in a of Corbena said. The phenom penh government has denied claims that americans Are being held in he country. The team includes an air Force Captain from the Bangkok embassy a department on missing americans an analyst from the defense intelligence Agency and an interpreter. They arrived wednesday and will stay in Cambodia about five Days. Instances of . Cooperation with the vietnamese installed communist government in Cambodia have been extremely rarer a Berbena said the government approved the current Mission after . Deputy assistant Secretary of state Kenneth Quinn met with cambodian officials in Beijing and in Vientiane the laotian capital last week. She said photographs that the team will investigate include the highly publicized one showing three men in a wooded setting holding a cryptic sign. Five families of missing americans have claimed loved ones Are in the. Photograph. Quinn sought information on the photograph in Vietnam and Laos last week and vietnamese officials told him it was a  the Pentagon said the photograph had passed through the hands of a a bring of cambodian opportunists led by a Well known and admitted fabricators of information about mias. However Berbena said the United states did not have enough information to resolve the question. A total of 2,273 americans Are listed As missing in action from the Vietnam War. Of the 83 missing Fly Cambodia most arc airmen. Greater Contact on the Mia Issue has been possible since september when Washington opened talks with the cambodian government after easing . Support a for the country a guerrillas. The government had expressed willing ass to cooperate on the Mia Issue since at least 1984, but . Officials complained that it was seeking political concessions in return. In july 1990, for the first time since the War Cambodia returned suspected remains of missing americans but . Forensic analysis determined that none of the six sets was american. Berbena said that from the fall of the .-backed vietnamese government in april 1975 to july 1 of this year,1 the . Government has received More than 13,538 reports related to the Mia Issue mostly from indochinese refugees. Of these 1,483 claim to be first hand sightings of living americans. She said 25 percent of these 1,483 claims were known or suspected As fabrications. An additional 68 percent was resolved by a correlation with americans who since have returned to the United states a she said. A total of 103 unresolved reports Are still being investigated and four of them pertain to Cambodia Ber Bena said. In Bangkok on tuesday Vietnam a Deputy foreign minister be Mai told assistant Secretary of state Rich Ard Solomon that the vietnamese government objects to Washington a refusal to establish diplomatic tics until the Mia and cambodian issues Are resolved. Be Mai said it was not in Vietnam a interest to keep american prisoners. But he said he told the americans that even if there was the slightest Chance that such prisoners were being held his government would cooperate with the United states in investigations. Pentagon adds 88 to pow Mia staff from wire reports Washington a defense Secretary Dick Cheney ordered the Pentagon on tuesday to nearly double the size of its staff working to resolve pow and Mia cases in Southeast Asia. Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams who announced the addition of 88 staff members said the change was a in the Mill for a Long time and not related to publicity Over recent claims that . Service members might still be alive in the Region. Improved relations with Vietnam and the fact that More information is being made available about americans still listed As missing in action Are primarily responsible for the changes he said. Of the 2,273 service members still unaccounted for in Southeast Asia the Pentagon classifies 1,172 As missing. The other 1,101 Are believed to have been killed in action but their bodies have not been recovered. A a we re starting to get More Access to vietnamese records More Access to crash Sites that kind of thing a Williams said. A was Vietnam turns Over More remains to us that requires More staff. Its a very painstaking process and it takes More people to do  Williams said the additions bring to 222 the number of staffers responsible for dealing with the Issue. The staffer will be dispersed among four offices. Plans for the additions a started Long before the release of a photograph that some family members believe shows three . Officers listed As missing in action Williams said. A families have identified the three men As air Force Mai. Albro Lundy jr., Navy it. Cmdr. Larry Stevens a Ltd air Force col. John Leighton Robertson. The three were lost in separate incidents in the late 1960s while flying missions during the Vietnam War. All have been declared killed in action but their bodies have not been recovered. Williams denied that the staff expansion was designed to Blunt a push on Capitol Hill for a presidential commission to look into allegations that the Pentagon has been dragging its feet on the pow Mia Issue. If a commission is formed the Pentagon will be Happy to cooperate with it he said. A this is not related to Congress. Its not related to the picture. Its related to increased Access to Southeast Asia a Williams said. A increased Access to Southeast Asia gives us All Hope that we will be Able to resolve More cases. We continue to operate on the Assumption that there May be americans alive in Southeast Asia. We have to operate under that Assumption. Because we have no Concrete evidence that its not the Case a he said. Earlier this year army col. Millard a. Peck resigned in protest As head of the defense intelligence Agency a special office for prisoners of War and missing in action. In a memorandum left behind for his colleagues Peck said the government had failed to make a serious Effort at investigating cases of a live sightings and might even be engaged in a  commander at Dien Bien Phu Dies Paris apr Brig. Gen. Christian de la Croix de Castries whose soldiers stubbornly defended but ultimately lost Frances decisive Indochina War Battle at Dien Bien Phu has died at age 88. Tuesdays announcement by the family did not disclose a cause or Date of death. A tall swashbuckling cavalry officer de Castries became a National hero for the defense of Dien Bien Phu though its loss marked the end of French colonial Rule in Southeast Asia. He was born aug. 11, 1902, in Paris to an aristocratic family with a tradition of equestrian expertise and military service dating Back to the time of Louis Xiv. In 1933, de Castries guided his horse to a world record for a High jump of 7 feet 10 inches. He was twice wounded during world War ii. Troops under his1 command took Siena Italy and he helped capture Karlsruhe and Freuden Stadt in Germany. In 1946, de Castries began his first tour of Indochina where the communist Viet Minh guerrillas commanded by to Chi Minh were battling for Independence from France. While commanding a Light tank unit de Castries was wounded and won his 18th citation for valor. He spent a year recuperating in France then returned. In december 1953, de Castries was sent to Dien Bien Phu where France hoped to lure the vie Minh guerrillas into a trap. Instead vie Minh troops commanded by to Nguyen Giap the architect of the subsequent . Defeat in Vietnam sur rounded Dien Bien Phu and prevented France from re supplying its troops. De Castries won a Battlefield promotion from colonel to brigadier general a rarity in French military tradition. But his troops slowly ran out of food and ammunition and he finally surrendered May 7,1954. He was held prisoner for four months while France negotiated a settlement that divided Vietnam into a communist ruled North and pro Western South de Castries married twice. His funeral was to be held thursday