Managua claims triumph

Press, 6 May 1983, Page 6

Managua claims triumph

NZPA-Reuter Managua

Nicaraguan Government forces had inflicted numerous casualties on 1200 Right-wing rebels who have invaded the north of the country with Honduran support, the Defence Ministry said yesterday. It also said yesterday that Government forces were in control of the southern border with Costa Rica, where more rebels were trying to penetrate. The Ministry said that the Army, backed by militia units, had contained the guerrilla invasion in the north to within 1000 metres of the border with Honduras.

Defence spokesmen said

that the rebels had suffered numerous casualties but gave no details. The fighting was continuing. The Foreign Minister, Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, has alleged that the 1200-rebel force invaded Nicaragua from Honduras at the week-end in an operation masterminded by the United States Central Intelligence Agency to try to topple the country’s Leftist-ruled government.

Defence Ministry officials said that three Nicaraguan soldiers had been killed and five injured in the fighting, described as the heaviest since 2000 other rebels were said to have infiltrated from Honduras earlier in the year.

In Washington the White House yesterday strongly condemned a congressional vote to halt United States covert activity in Nicaragua, saying that the decision seemed to acquiesce to Marxist terrorism in Central America.

Using some of the harshest language ever directed at Congress it vowed to try to reverse Wednesday’s vote.

The House of Representatives Intelligence Committee voted to cut United States aid for a secret operation which President Ronald Reagan says is designed to stop the flow of arms from Nicaragua to Left-wing guerrillas in El Salvador.

Mr Reagan later told six White House reporters that the vote would set a dangerous precedent if upheld by the full Congress.

The vote would impair his ability to conduct his foreign policy responsibilities, he said.

Mr Reagan spoke of helping “freedom fighters” who once were part of. the Sandinist movement but now felt betrayed by what he called the Nicaraguan Government’s refusal to uphold democracy and human rights. Challenged about the phrase, Mr Reagan replied: “I just used the words, I guess, ‘freedom fighters,’ because (of) the fact we know that the thing that brought these people together is the desire ... for the same revolutionary principles that they once fought (for) and have been betrayed in. “When we talk about Nicaragua and everyone says ‘the Government in Nicaragua,’ well, it was a Government out of the barrel of a gun ...

“What makes them any more a legitimate Government than the people of Nicaragua who are asking for a chance to vote for the kind of Government they want?” he asked.

Mr Reagan said that he was giving anti-Sandinist guerrillas covert aid because open aid would have to go through other governments and the United States would be dependent on them. But if Congress wanted him to give open aid to the anti-Sandinist groups “that is all right with me.”