REPORT: US, PERU TO BLAME FOR INCIDENT

The Associated Press July 31, 2001 4:09 am WASHINGTON (AP) -- A
State Department inquiry has concluded that Peru and the United
States share responsibility for the mistaken shootdown of a civilian
aircraft carrying American missionaries, The Washington Post reported
Tuesday.

Citing several unamed sources familiar with the report, the paper
said it does not assign direct blame to either country for the April
incident in which a plane was shot down over northern Peru by a
Peruvian Air Force fighter jet which targeted it as a suspected drug
flight.

The small private plane was tracked by a CIA surveillance plane flown
by American contract employees who relayed information to the
Peruvian Air Force.

A Baptist missionary, Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter
were killed and pilot Kevin Donaldson was seriously wounded when the
plane was shot down.

The Post said that although its sources declined to provide specific
details of the report, they said it characterizes the U.S.-Peru drug
interdiction program as having limited U.S. oversight and having
evolved over the years into lax adherence by both countries to
established procedures.

Top department officials traveling abroad with Secretary of State
Colin Powell said they were unfamiliar with contents of the report.

The Post, which cited sources as saying a Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence as reaching similar conclusions, said the administration
inquiry has been withheld while officials try to figure out what to
do about the program.

It quoted an administration officials as saying a "collective"
decision was made in June by "the most senior levels of this
government" to withhold the report, pending a separate policy review.