WASHINGTON – Jesse Jackson’s mission yesterday revealed the three U.S. POWs held by the Serbs seem healthy but still bruised – and are being held in a military site that could be a NATO target.
“Sorry you have to live through so much pain and agony,” Spc. Steven Gonzales, 21, of Huntsville, Tex., said in emotional message to his family filmed by TV cameras with Jackson.
Staff Sgt. Christopher Stone, 25, of Smiths Creek, Mich., still bore a visible bruise on his forehead – “a mark from our capture,” he said, suggesting he was badly beaten after being taken prisoner a month ago.
Stone – who looked the most seriously hurt in Serbian video footage released right after their capture – seemed tired. Tears welled in his eyes as he sent his love to wife Tricia and son Ryan, 4, on video that had to be cleared by Serbian censors.
The POWs are held in solitary confinement with no access to news and nothing to read but Serbian history books and, as of Thursday, the Geneva Convention on prisoners. The trio have seen each other only briefly – but not to talk – they said.
The third POW, Staff Sgt. Andrew Ramirez, 24, of Los Angeles, only got to send greetings to his family before the filmed interviews were dramatically cut short by the sound of air-raid sirens.
“This is at a government building. Of course it could be hit [by NATO] at any time,” Jackson told CNN.
Today Jackson meets with Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic in hopes of winning freedom for the three POWs – though Serbian officials insist that won’t happen until the NATO bombing stops.
Rep. Rod Blagojevich (D-Ill.), who went with Jackson to see the POWs, reported they’re being held at an “undisclosed military site” in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, said his spokesman, Matt Devine.
NATO is carrying out intensive bombing of Belgrade military targets.
Asked if U.S. officials fear the three POWs are being used as human shields, a Pentagon official said there’s no way to answer that “because we don’t know where they’re being held.”
Blagojevich, a Serb-American, said the three POWs looked all right physically – but he’s worried about their “psychological condition,” Devine told The Post, adding: “Everything is filled with uncertainty.”
One of the POWs seemed “confused” and frightened at first, but relaxed when he recognized Jackson, Devine added.
The POWs said they have been fed properly but Gonzales said he felt “a little mentally drained.”
Jackson brought them candy, Bibles, letters and taped messages from their families, adding that they have been held in a kind of “vacuum’ and “it has been for them a long, dark night.”
Ramirez’s mother, Vivian, said she thought her son and the others “were looking good,” and hopes he’ll be home soon. She said she was glad Jackson got to see the captives and wants them to know “everybody in the whole United States is behind them.”
Jackson launched his mission on his own, and President Clinton’s staff has made clear its unhappiness with his media-heavy trip.