Reagaa ready to fight for Contra aid

Press, 1 February 1988, Page 8

Reagaa ready to fight for Contra aid

NZPA-AFP

Washington

President Reagan yesterday set the stage for this week’s Congressional battle, reiterating his arguments for additional aid to the Nicaraguan Contra rebels in his weekly radio address.

The White House has asked Congress to provide 5U536.2 million ($54.7 million) to the Contras. Of that amount, SUS 3.6 million ($5.4 million) would be earmarked for ammunition and surface-to-air missiles and held in escrow, with the rest going to “non-lethal” supplies. Mr Reagan said Managua had "embarked upon a massive military buildup and already begun to send arms and guerrillas into neighbour-

ing countries.” United States aid to the rebels had allowed them “to win major victories, placing intense pressure upon the communist Sandinista regime to reform,” he said. Mr Reagan said he would withhold the military aid to the Contras pending progress in current cease-fire negotiations, but described recent steps toward democratisation in Nicaragua as “extremely limited.”

“If the Sandinistas fail to move forward on the path of peace and democracy, then I will certify to Congress that these supplies must be released,” he said. Nicaraguan Government representatives and a Contra delegation held their first-ever face-to-face talks in San Jose on Thursday and Friday and agreed to meet again in Guatemala City eight days after the February 3-4 congressional vote.

Democratic leaders have promised to vote down the measure in favour of backing the Central American peace plan. Representative Richard Gephardt — also a presidential candidate — said in the Democrat’s response to Mr Reagan’s address that Congress would defeat the President’s request. "The Contra war is wrong. It is clear that it cannot be won,” he said. Mr Gephardt praised

the August 7 Central American peace accord, which called for ceasefires, amnesties, democratisation and an end to outside aid to insurgents. “The (peace) plan has brought in six months something the Contras could not achieve in six years: a reversal in the trend toward repression inside Nicaragua,” he said in reference to Managua’s recent decision to lift a state of emergency first imposed in 1982.