Nicaragua, contras set for peace talks

Press, 3 December 1987, Page 10

Nicaragua, contras set for peace talks

NZPA-Reuter Managua Sandinista negotiators left yesterday for a first round of peace talks with United States-backed rebels, but both sides apparently were far from agreement on ways of ending Nicaragua’s conflict, diplomats said.

Official radio said a Nicaraguan delegation led by the Military Intelligence chief, Major Ricardo Wheelock, left for the Dominican Republic, a site approved by both sides for indirect talks starting tomorrow. Nicaraguan officials stressed that the delegation would not meet face-to-face but that the church mediator, Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo,

would relay proposals between the two sides. The talks, the result of a regional accord for ending Central America’s conflicts, were seen by diplomats as an Important breakthrough in efforts to end the war in which Nicaragua’s Army faces an estimated 12,000 contra rebels armed, funded and directed by Washington. A rebel spokesman contacted by telephone in

Miami said the contras were sending a four-man commission to the Caribbean island republic. The spokesman, Jorge Rosales, said rebel proposals included a onemonth ceasefire starting December 8, full amnesty for political prisoners, abolition of a five-year-old state of emergency, and the dismantling of various mass Government organisations. The contras proposed

that they be allowed to retain their arms and positions during the ceasefire in about half of Nicaragua. The Government, which has ruled out discussion of political issues, made no immediate comment on the document, delivered by Cardinal Obando y Bravo on Monday in response to an 11-point ceasefire presented by Nicaraguan President

Daniel Ortega in Washington last month. Diplomats said many of the contras’ demands, would be unacceptable to Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) which has insisted the talks be limited to arranging a ceasefire, one of the key provisions of the peace accord signed by five Central American Presidents on August 7 in Guatemala.