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CNN Live Saturday

U.S. Delegation Holds Third Meeting With American Crew

Aired April 07, 2001 - 13:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: We want to switch to Hainan Island with our Lisa Rose Weaver. She is there and reported to us just a moment or two ago that the third meeting was underway -- Lisa Rose.

LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that, indeed, is the latest. U.S. officials just told us that part of the delegation of Americans here have just begun a face to face meeting with the 24 air crewmembers. Now we don't know exactly where the meeting is. If it follows a pattern of the last two, it's at a military facility somewhere in the southern portion of Haikou, the provincial capital of Hainan Island.

Now, still unanswered at this point is, will this meeting lead to a release. Either will a release be announced after this meeting, or will it get the process significantly closer to this. We also don't know what is being discussed, what has been discussed, at the last two meetings and this one, besides the obvious, which is an effort to get these people out.

Now, the way it works is that the U.S. delegation first meets -- there's a total of seven Americans in this delegation -- first meets with provincial officials. Then, as in the past two meetings, two of them, including the head of the delegation, the U.S. defense attache, will then go to the military facility to meet face to face with the air crewmembers.

Now, we learned after yesterday's meeting, that they were able to do that without Chinese officials in the room. We don't know what they talked about with the air crewmembers, and we don't know if they're going to meet with them without Chinese officials this time or not. But we are going to be looking at, obviously, when they return, and we are expecting a statement first, from the Chinese side, and then from the head of the U.S. delegation.

We are expecting basically a read out on how far they've come in releasing the 24 Americans.

KELLEY: Lisa Rose, the do they put a time limit on these meetings, that you know of, with the crew?

WEAVER: Not that I know of. They've been, in the past, fairly short, just over an hour was the last meeting. Far more time has been taken up meeting with the officials, with the Chinese officials to first set the ground rules. So first they meet with Chinese officials, they set the ground rules for the smaller face to face meetings with the air crew now in custody for nearly a week. So, it's hard to say, but in the area of one hour.

KELLEY: Can you just quickly clarify for me one point, too -- did you say that you did not know, at this meeting today, whether or not they were able to meet, or they are meeting the crew without Chinese officials present?

WEAVER: It's not possible to know under what conditions they are meeting with the 24 crewmembers.

Donna: But yesterday, the one meeting you said they were able to meet without Chinese officials, right? Or the second meeting?

WEAVER: That is true, yes, that is true. Yesterday they did meet without Chinese officials in the room, but the press spokesman for the U.S. delegation told me earlier today that the ground rules for each meeting are different. And they only learned the ground rules for each meeting, we are told, before the smaller meeting with the -- with the 24 air crewmembers. So at this point it would be speculating to say what, you know, what the conditions of third meeting with the air crewmembers are now.

KELLEY: That's something we will find out, you bet. Lisa Rose Weaver, who's on Hainan Island. Thank you for the very latest.

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