Contras hope to talk peace

Press, 17 October 1987, Page 10

Contras hope to talk peace

NZPA-Reuter Washington

Exiled Nicaraguan contra rebel leaders have said they plan to send a delegation to Managua, hoping to force the Sandinista government to hold direct ceasefire talks with them under a regional peace plan. The rebels made the announcement at a news conference, saying they Expected Nicaragua’s Leftist leaders to accept the delegation although they had no formal assurance from Managua.

“There is no reason whatsoever ... that we should be rejected by the Sandinista Government if they really want peace,” said Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, one of the six members of the contras’ political leadership.

Chamorro also said Archbishop Miguel Qbando y Bravo, the most authoritative opposition figure in Nicaragua and the head of a new national reconciliation committee, had agreed to mediate between-the contras and the Government. The contras have called for direct ceasefire talks with Managua as part of the regional peace plan set to take effect on November 7. Nicaragua has refused but has put into effect some limited unilateral ceasefires as part of the peace initiative.

Nicaragua, in turn, has called repeatedly for direct talks with the

Reagan Administration, which helped organise the contra movement in 1981, but has been rebuffed.

Chamorro did not name any delegates but said the group would arrive in Managua before November 7.

The leaders of the five Central American nations — Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador — signed the regional peace plan in August. ■ It was authored by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez, who won the Nobel Peace Prize on Tuesday 1 ‘for his effort? to bring peace to war-tom Central America.

The plan mainly calls for ceasefires in all civil wars, an amnesty for rebels and moves towards democratisation in each country to begin on November 7. Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said he and other United States lawmakers would accompany the delegation as a show of support and called the effort an “im-, portant step forward.” In an interview published in the “New York Times” on Thursday, Mr Arias said Nicaragua must negotiate directly with the contras to reach a peace

settlement. “Now, more than ever,

I am going to insist that a negotiated ceasefire in Nicaragua is indispensable if we are to achieve lasting peace in Central America,” he said.