[Editor’s note: The text for this document was released in 2014 by the now-defunct Wikileaks website at https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1979GEORGE02098_e.html.]
UNCLASSIFIED
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GEORGE 02098 141720Z
ACTION ARA-15
INFO OCT-01 ADS-00 H-02 FSE-00 ABF-01 OCS-06 /025 W
——————031786 151423Z /53
R 141202Z MAY 79
FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 9629
UNCLAS GEORGETOWN 2098
E.O. 12065: NA
TAGS: CDES
SUBJ: FUNERAL EXPENSES OF RYAN PARTY PEOPLE’S TEMPLE
REF: STATE 76818
1. EMBASSY WOULD APPRECIATE KNOWING WHEN IT MAY EXPECT DEPOSIT OF FUNDS FOR MORTUARY EXPENSES RESULTING FROM THE ASSASSINATION OF CONGRESSMAN RYAN AND OTHER MEMBERS OF HIS PARTY ON NOVEMBER 18, 1978. (FOR DEPARTMENT’S INFORMATION, HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE STAFF MEMBER MR. GEORGET BERDES WHILE VISITING GEORGETOWN STATED HE WOULD LOOK INTO MATTER WITH REGARD TO CONGRESSMAN RYAN UPON HIS RETURN TO WASHINGTON.)
2. STATE 75861 INFORMED EMBASSY OF DEPOSIT OF FUNDS FOR GREGORY ROBINSON AND THIS ACCOUNT HAS BEEN PAID. HOWEVER, PAYMENT OF FUNERAL EXPENSES IN GUYANA FOR CONGRESSMAN LEO RYAN, DON HARRIS AND BOB BROWN AS OUTLINED IN GEORGETOWN’S 4181 ARE STILL OUTSTANDING. THE DELAY IN PAYMENT OF FUNERAL EXPENSES FOR CONGRESSMAN RYAN, AS WELL AS MESSRS, HARRIS AND BROWN WHICH HAVE BEEN OUTSTANDING SINCE NOVEMBER 1978 IS CREATING AN EMBARRASSING SITUATION FOR THE EMBASSY.
BURKE [U.S. Ambassador John Burke]
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