September 29, 2003

Press Release

With regard to the article on the front page of the September 29, 2003, edition of Postimees, U.S. Ambassador to Estonia Joseph DeThomas had this to say:

"The Government of the United States of America is very grateful to those serving and those who served with the Estonian explosive ordnance detection (EOD) team at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and to the Päästeamet and the Government of Estonia for its decision to deploy this unit. Not only did Estonia fulfill the original terms of the agreement it made with the United States when deploying to Bagram, but it extended the team's deployment well beyond the period of its original commitment.

"The Government of the United States was informed early of Estonia's decision not to rotate another EOD team to Afghanistan after the current deployment concludes in December 2003. We understand the need for forces of coalition partners to rest and recuperate.

Contrary to the statement in the Postimees article, there were no Embassy consultations with Washington leading to 'a green light for the EOD team to remain in Afghanistan.'"