cries@mtxinu.COM (09/14/89)
/* Written 5:38 pm Sep 12, 1989 by cries in ni:cries.regionews */
/* ---------- "Nica: Contras Active / Prisoners" ---------- */
(cries.regionews from Managua September 12, 1989
86 lines 3945 bytes)
Although the recent agreement signed at the presidential
summit meeting in Tela, Honduras raised hopes that the war
in Nicaragua will come to an end, contra bands continue to
make attacks in remote regions of the country. A Sandinista
Peoples' Army (EPS) communique issued in early September
reported 44 attacks by contras against the army and 20
against civilians.
As a result of this fighting, 10 soldiers, reservists, and
militia members were killed. Civilian casualties totaled 14
dead, 16 kidnapped, and 5 wounded. The EPS reported that it
inflicted 67 losses to the contras, including 41 fatalities.
Confusion reigns in contra ranks in the wake of the Tela
agreements. Many are entering Nicaragua in order to avoid
detection by the International Commission of Support and
Verification (CIAV), established in order to oversee the
contra demobilization plan. On August 17, President Daniel
Ortega denounced an infiltration of some 3000. The AP wire
service reported at the end of August that 1500 more were
heading for Nicaragua.
Others who were in-country at the time of the summit have
been making their way back to base camps in Honduras. A
small number have taken advantage of the amnesty program
offered by the government and have laid down their weapons.
Peace Commissions have been reactivated in the war zones in
order to encourage contra foot soldiers to return to
civilian life.
Inside Honduras, some contras are looking for a way to avoid
repatriation either by buying land and posing as Hondurans
or by trying to disperse throughout the country and blend in
somehow. The Honduran army reportedly formed a cordon around
the contra base camps shortly after the summit in order to
prevent this.
Another report at the beginning of September had contras in
bases in Bolson de Arenales pulling up stakes and heading
for the hill country in northeastern Honduras in order to
avoid the CIAV which began work in mid-September. They have
orientations to bury their weapons in underground caches in
case the Nicaraguan Resistance decides to reinitiate
fighting at a later date, something which top contra
military commander, Enrique Bermudez, has vowed to do.
*******************
PRISONER COUNT
As reported in the last Regionews, the International
Committee of the Red Cross carried out a census in
Nicaragua's jails in order to determine the exact number
prisoners being held for war-related crimes. According to
their findings, there are 1306 such convicts, 1268 contra
collaborators and 38 former members of the Somoza National
Guard.
The opposition daily La Prensa still maintains that there
are many more imprisoned in the detention centers of the
General Office of State Security (DGSE). The Red Cross has
asked for permission to investigate this claim.
Shortly after the first investigation, the daily El Nuevo
Diario used its front page to attack a group, the "Mothers
of January 22", which is supposedly modeled after the world-
renowned Argentine mothers' of the disappeared group. This
organization, which has been at the center of a number of
past protests that eneded in violence, is part of a network
of front groups which the National Endowment for Democracy
funds. These "Mothers" had made public THEIR list of
prisoners.
A large number of them, according to the pro-revolution
newspapaer noted for its vituperative attacks on the
opposition, had actually been released already, some of them
as much a four years ago. The editors referred to this as
"trafficking in prisoners".
(We encourage feedback. Send comments, suggestions, etc. to
us via e-mail. Address cdp!ni!cries)
---
Patt Haring | UNITEX : United Nations
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