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American Morning

U.S. Continues to Demand Crewmembers' Release

Aired April 10, 2001 - 11:19   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Now for the latest on the U.S.-China standoff. Again today, Chinese officials are insisting that the U.S. take responsibility and apologize for the incident. For the latest from Hainan Island where the crew is being held, also the plane, we're going to go live by video phone to CNN's Lisa Rose Weaver -- Lisa.

LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, just more than three hours ago, U.S. officials were able to meet for the fifth time all 24 aircrew members in China's custody now for more than a week.

Now there has been some progress in the last couple of meetings on the ease of access that the U.S. Consular officials have had to them. One, for the second time, they've been able to go directly to the aircrew members and not have to first sit down with Chinese officials to talk about parameters of the face-to-face meetings with the aircrew members.

They have also been able to meet with them with no Chinese officials in the room. So it appears the request by the head of the U.S. delegation -- that's General -- Brigadier General Neal Sealock -- pressing the Chinese a couple of days ago for what he called unfettered access is coming to pass here on the ground in Hainan.

However, the progress here in the form of the meetings does not necessarily mean that a release is right around the corner. Now, obviously, the U.S. officials are emphasizing that the crew is more than ready to go home and that the U.S. is ready to take them home, but it's just far from clear at this point exactly when a release is going to be.

Now General Sealock emphasized again that the help of the crew is excellent physically, and in terms of morale, they are able to get exercise in the military facility where they are being held, they're able to move around inside freely, they're well fed, their laundry is getting done. Perhaps most important for morale, they are getting printed copies of e-mail messages from their families. This the U.S. officials have been taking to them for the past couple of days. They're getting English language newspapers.

U.S. officials' comments on these meetings have very much been restricted to two things. One, it's time -- it's time to go home. They're ready to go home. And, two, the crewmembers are in good shape. What we don't know is to what extent U.S. officials are being able to put together a picture of the collision now more than a week ago based on their talks with the aircrew members. They're just not telling us. We also don't know if the U.S. officials are asking the detained Americans what the Chinese asked them.

The Chinese government a few days ago admitted that it was questioning the Americans in connection to China's own investigation into the collision. Presumably,the United States is concerned to know what the Chinese have been trying to learn, but, from here on the ground in Hainan, we're not getting those details, rather a picture of some Americans fortunately, apparently in very good shape and very much ready to return home -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Lisa Rose Weaver on Hainan Island. Thank you so much.

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