MISSIONARIES DOWNED OVER PERU ARRIVE BACK IN U.S.

LIMA, Peru (April 22) - U.S. missionaries shot down by a Peruvian Air Force
jet over the Amazon jungle returned home on Sunday as an official with
their mission defended the pilot and said he could not understand how their
aircraft could have been mistaken for a drug plane.

Jim Bowers and his son Cory escorted home the body of his wife Roni, 35,
and their daughter Charity, 7 months. The two were killed when a Peruvian
Air Force jet opened fire on their small aircraft on Friday and the pilot
crash landed in the Amazon river. Jim and Cory Bowers were unhurt.

The Cessna's injured pilot, Kevin Donaldson also returned to the United
States on Sunday, with his wife and son.

"I think our main concern is his legs. He has some vein damage. I think
they're going to do microsurgery," said E.C. Haskell, executive
administrator of mission relations for the Association of Baptists for
World Evangelism. "Both legs were broken. One of them was shattered."

The Bowers family, which is from Muskegon, Michigan and had been in Peru
since 1993, headed to Raleigh, N.C., while the Donaldsons were going to
Philadelphia, said Haskell in a telephone interview from Pennsylvania.

In its sole official comment on the affair, the Peruvian Air Force said in
a communique on Friday it opened fire on the missionaries' Cessna 185
"floatplane" after it failed to heed warnings to land and that it had no
published flight plan. But it refused to comment further.

A Peruvian Defense Ministry spokesman had said privately that the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration intercepted the plane. The DEA could not be
reached for comment.

Peru has a policy -- instituted under former President Alberto Fujimori --
of shooting down suspected drug planes.

Haskell said the family had flown to the Colombian border and then took a
boat across to get a visa for baby Charity.

"They were never out of Peruvian air space," he said, unequivocally
dismissing allegations that they hadn't filed a flight plan. "They did," he
said.

Haskell also dismissed allegation that the plane wasn't identifiable,
noting that a photo on the group's Web site showed the identification
numbers clearly.

WIDOWER QUESTIONED BY DEA

After the incident, Bowers was questioned briefly by DEA agents, said
Donaldson's son, Benjamin. Bowers had reported seeing an American plane in
the air at the time of the incident.

"He said he was asked basic questions by the DEA, who then moved him to a
hotel room," he told Reuters by telephone from Iquitos before heading to
Lima for a flight to the United States.

When Reuters later called the Iquitos El Dorado hotel, staff said American
"police agents" were with him, and would not allow anyone to talk to him.

Donaldson's wife, Bobbi, said Bowers had reported to Peru's air traffic
authorities by radio before the attack and believed his wife and daughter
had been killed by the same bullet.

The pilot had no immediate comment. "I will talk later," Donaldson told
reporters in Spanish after being transported along the Amazon on a
stretcher in a dugout canoe on Saturday.

WASHINGTON SUSPENDS DRUG SURVEILLANCE FLIGHTS

The United States said on Saturday its own anti-drug surveillance plane
located the missionaries for the Peruvian jet, saying they were mistaken
for drug smugglers.

The White House called the incident a "tragic accident."

"The United States is certainly upset by the fact that two American
citizens lost their lives," President George W. Bush said at a Summit of
the Americas in Quebec City, Canada.

The U.S. statement that it had helped the Peruvian fighter jet came
overnight, after carefully avoiding acknowledging any role in the incident
for much of Saturday.

"An unarmed U.S. government tracking aircraft was in the area and provided
location data for the subsequent intercept mission that was conducted by
the Peruvian Air Force," a State Department official said on condition of
anonymity.

"It was mistaken for an airplane carrying contraband drugs," the spokesman
added, saying that while unarmed U.S. aircraft pass location information to
the Peruvian Air Force, the Peruvians were "responsible for identifying
aircraft and deciding on any action."

The United States has suspended the interdiction surveillance flights.
Military activity and drug trafficking is rife in the jungle area where the
missionaries went down in northern Peru.

The State Department spokesman said the U.S. aircraft was in the area as
part of a U.S. program to support anti-drug efforts in Peru, involving the
U.S. State Department, CIA, DEA and Defense Department.

The Washington Post quoted an unnamed U.S. official as saying the U.S.
military had intercepted a communication between unknown parties calling
for a halt in the interception. Neither State Department nor Defense
officials could confirm the report.

13:24 04-22-01