MEXICO PROBE WILL BE SLOW, RENO WARNS

Attorney General Janet Reno cautioned yesterday against reaching premature
conclusions about the outcome of a U.S.-Mexican effort to excavate the
remains of victims of drug-related violence buried on ranches in Ciudad
Juarez, Mexico.

Mexican and U.S. law enforcement agents continued to dig at a ranch just
south of Ciudad Juarez, on the Mexico-Texas border, but Mexican officials
said no additional remains were found. Parts of skeletons and clothing from
six bodies were unearthed Tuesday and Wednesday, officials said.

U.S. and Mexican authorities said this week that 100 or more bodies could
be buried in a number of graves. Since then, law enforcement authorities
have cautioned that the difficulty of removing and identifying the remains
could take months.

While some skepticism has begun to build as the remains of only six people
have been found in the past few days, Reno cautioned that it is too early
to know what the sites will yield.

"I think it is important that the investigation and the processes take
their course, so that we don't prematurely jump to conclusions and that we
get to the truth and the heart of the matter," Reno said during her weekly
media briefing.

Mexican and U.S. law enforcement agents have said the bodies are believed
to be those of some of the nearly 200 Mexican and U.S. citizens who have
disappeared from the Ciudad Juarez-El Paso border area in the past five
years. Human rights organizations representing the victims' families have
alleged that unscrupulous Mexican police and military authorities were
involved in the crimes.

Correspondent Molly Moore in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, contributed to this
report.