Somoza air force bombs own capital

Press, 13 June 1979, Page 8

Somoza air force bombs own capital

NZPA-Reuter Managua President Anastasio Somoza ordered the Nicaraguan Air Force to bomb Managua in an effort to crush an allout guerrilla assault on the capital. Columns of smoke billowed from the southwestern suburbs, and gunfire erupted in other parts of the city after the Left-wing guerrilla offensive from all sides. Witnesses said dozens of people had been killed in the fighting. Residents in the southwestern suburbs told reporters by telephone: “The planes are coming in now. The bombs are dropping. People are fleeing everv-

| where.” i Cabinet Ministers aban-. I boned their homes and ini stalled themselves at the! 'lntercontinental Hotel close! 'to General Somoza’s under-) ground headquarters called; !”the Bunker.” In Leon. Nicaragua's sec-, ond city, residents said guer-| irillas had captured a tank] | from Government troops and . were blasting Government reinforcements with it. An evacuation of United: 'States diplomats' families: ;and some other Americans' i from Nicaragua was called 'off after the guerrillas ! blocked the only road to Managua airport, the State Department has said. , Sixty Americans —2B dependants of embassy officers and 32 private citizens — [were to have been evacuated on a Pan American flight. But the road closing prevented Pan American employees from reaching the airport, and the airliner overIflew the capital, the spokes'man, Mr Hodding Carter, said. The Americans were at the j embassy and a U.S. Air (Force Hercules was standing; ‘by in Panama to take them lout. The passions of Nicaragua's civil war reached the Organisation of American ; States yesterday as a Nic-; araguan Government address I was interrupted by tlag.waving, slogan-shouting I! demonstrators. Four Nicaraguan protesters penetrated tight security at the O.A.S. headquarters in Washington shortly after the special meeting began, and unfurled a blue-and-white I Nicaraguan flag with simuIla ted blood stains.

I While the startled dele-1 j gates, including the Nicaraiguan Ambassador (Mr Guil-'le-mo Sevilla Sacassa) ( looked on in silence, two of (the protesters, Saul Arana i and Magda Levin, gave imI passioned speeches denouncling the “Fascist dictatorship” of Nicaragua. : They were allowed to jcomplete their brief I speeches, and then left ; quietly. ! Adding to the bizarre ’ scene was the presence of an arsenal of weapons at the horsesho e-shaped table where the O.A.S. ambassadors were holdmg their meeting. Mr Sevilla Sacasa contended the weapons had been captured from the guerrillas, and he said most had been smuggled into Nicaragua from Cuba through Panama. Far from being offended by the allegation, the Panamanian Ambassador (Mr Juan Antonio Tack) said Mr Sevilla Sacasa’s evidence of Panamanian complicity “has brought great pride to the Panamanian people.” Mr Tack said if it were possible, he would have the TOOM people who live in Latin America testify to the ! excesses of the Somoza regime. 1 The Nicaraguan presenta- ! tion was made with an eye •on an impending crucial ’ United States House of Rep- ! resentatives vote on legislation to carry through provi- • sions of the Panama Canal ' treaties. i Nicaragua has been trying ! to depict Panama as an unI reliable treaty partner by : demonstrating Panama’s in- ■ volvetnent in support of the guerrillas.