Not compensation, says U.S.

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, APRIL 30. The Bush Administration has welcomed the offer by China to inspect the American surveillance EP-3E Aries II plane which lies crippled and stranded in a military base at the Hainan island. The word is also that Washington may have to fork out some ``cash'' for the eventual return of the plane even as the administration is rushing to say that this is not compensation.

The Vice-President, Mr. Richard Cheney, on Sunday called China's initiation as a positive sign. ``The fact that they have now announced that they are willing to have U.S. personnel go in and look at the aircraft and assess what it is going to take to get it back, I think is very positive,'' he said. After initially making the point that the crew personnel of the EP-3E had destroyed the valuable data and other sophisticated material before leaving it, information now is that the full procedures may not have been followed through leaving Beijing with a so- called treasure trove. The point being now made is that Beijing has no reason to keep the plane as it has had an opportunity to go ``all over it'' in the last four weeks.

The Bush Administration had all along been saying that the plane was sovereign American territory and therefore the Chinese would have to stay away from it - an explanation that had been rejected by China from the very beginning. One view is that now that Beijing has had the time to complete its ``investigation'' there are no reasons to hold on to the spy plane. Both the U.S. and China are already said to be involved in talks on the return of the navy surveillance plane which is damaged.

There is more than one way in which the EP-3E could come back to the U.S. American personnel could fly down to the Hainan Island with repair equipment, service the plane and fly it out; the surveillance plane could be taken down in crates and brought back; or could be loaded on to a barge and taken out of the Hainan Island.

Reports say that a U.S. technical team is getting ready to leave as early as today and from the Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan. The Pentagon has not commented on these reports.

Mr. Cheney has been quick to say that the U.S. had only agreed to reimburse the costs associated with recovery of the plane as this is in no shape to fly out because of heavy damage to its nose and propellers. ``We will pay whatever costs are associated with recovering the aircraft in terms of transportation, barge, cranes - whatever is required to get back out. That is legitimately something we ought to pay,'' he said.

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Section  : International
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