ACCESSION NUMBER:00000

FILE ID:95040401.PPO

DATE:04/04/95

TITLE:DEFENSE DEPARTMENT REPORT, TUESDAY, APRIL 4



TEXT:

(Guatemala, Turkey/northern Iraq) (350)



NEWS BRIEFING -- Deputy spokesman Dennis Boxx discussed the following

subjects:



PENTAGON REVIEWING GUATEMALAN CONTACTS



Boxx said the Defense Department is currently reviewing all contacts

between elements of the department and Guatemala.



"Right now," he said, "the involvement is very limited," with a few

U.S. military units occasionally conducting Guard and Reserve

engineering training to help carry out road and school construction

tasks.



The review is seeking information from January 1980 to the present

concerning the murders of Michael Devine and Efrain Bamaca Valesquez.

Information is also being sought related to the possible destruction

of records related to the two cases. The inquiry will conclude by

April 15.



The Pentagon's general counsel issued extensive guidelines to the

military services on March 31 on how information for the review should

be collected, but the deputy spokesman said it is too soon for a

status report.



Boxx said the Joint Staff is compiling a chronology of deployment of

all U.S. military personnel assigned to missions related to Guatemala

in the areas of intelligence, training, military assistance, special

operations, counter-terrorism and narcotics



U.S. SEES TURKISH OPERATION IN NORTHERN IRAQ AS "LIMITED"



Boxx said the United States still believes that the Turkish military

operation in northern Iraq must be of "limited" duration and scope and

incorporate "careful consideration of human rights of those

individuals who are not the targets of the Turkish effort."



"We don't have any indication or any reason to think that this will be

otherwise," he added.



To date, Boxx said, the United States has received indications that

the Turks "are making sincere efforts to abide by human rights

standards."



As to the expected end date for the Turkish operation, he said the

United States has not heard "a date certain." But senior Turkish

officials, Boxx said, have made it known that "they, too, desire this

(operation) to be of limited duration...and hope to be in and out of

there in a reasonably short period of time."

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