’Copter crash toll 75

Press, 11 December 1982, Page 1

’Copter crash toll 75

NZPA Managua Seventy-five children were killed in a helicopter crash in Nicaragua yesterday. The air force helicopter crashed and burned while flying the Indian children to the Nicaraguan capital from their homes along the guer-rilla-infested border with Honduras, the Defence Ministry reported. An official communique reporting the crash in the mountainous Ayapal region, about 180 km north of Managua, did not say whether the helicopter plunged to the ground because .of an acci-

dent or was shot down. The communique said the helicopter carried 78 chil-' dren. two adults, and a crew of two as it flew over the border region, known as a hotbed of Right-wing guerrillas dedicated to the overthrow of Nicaragua's Sandinist Government. It said that the crew and the adult passengers survived the crash, with three of the children. The communique said that soon after the crash a second helicopter flew over the area and came under fire from the ground. It suffered only minor damage, and flew on.

Former guardsmen of the late Nicaraguan dictator. Anastasio Somoza, have been attacking Nicaraguan border villages in recent months. The Left-wing Sandinist Government said some residents had been killed. So far this year Nicaragua has made 59 protests to the Honduran Government about the border raids. Nicaragua says that Honduras, backed by the United States, has been arming and training the Right-wingers to overthrow the Sandinists who came to power three years ago in a revolution that toppled Mr Somoza.