Nicaraguan Rebel Tells of Killings As Device For Forced Recruitment
By JOEL BRINKLEY, Special to the New York Times
September 12, 1985
A former Nicaraguan rebel says in a court affidavit that the rebels routinely forcibly recruited new guerrillas by publicly killing Government officials and their sympathizers in small Nicaraguan towns.
In an affidavit to the World Court that is to be made public on Thursday, Edgar Chamorro, who was a leader of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force until last fall, said the forced recruitment was done with the acquiescence of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Rebel units ''would arrive at an undefended village, assemble all the residents in the town square and then proceed to kill - in full view of the others - all persons working for the Nicaraguan Government, including police, local militia members, party members, health workers, teachers and farmers,'' the affidavit says.
''It was easy to persuade those left alive'' to join, he added. Bosco Matomoros, spokesman for the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, today called Mr. Chamorro's charges ''an absolute lie.''
Assurance on Aid Reported
But in an interview at his home here, Mr. Chamorro said he was told of forced recruitment in the two years he was with the group. Other rebel leaders have acknowledged that some guerrillas brutalized civilians, but they have added that anyone found guilty of that was expelled, punished or executed.
Mr. Chamorro's affidavit also says that two officials of the the National Security Council staff assured the rebels 16 months ago that they would take over supervision of their military operations after Congress voted to forbid further aid.
The officials, identified as Lieut. Col. Oliver North and Ronald F. Lehman 2d, began meeting with the rebels in Honduras in May 1984. They assured the rebels that ''President Reagan remained committed to removing the Sandinistas from power.''
Mr. Chamorro said that when Colonel North visited the rebels, he identified himself by name but not by agency, and ''we thought he was from the Pentagon.''
White House officials have acknowledged that Colonel North, a Marine, was involved in rebel activities. The White House would not comment on the charge about Mr. Lehman.for The House Select Committee on Intelligence has been investigating whether the involvement of members of the National Security staff violated the Congressional prohibition on aid.
Mr. Chamarro said he was interviewed last week by the director of the General Accounting Office's national security division as part of an investigation of the C.I.A.'s role in advising the rebels how to lobby members of Congress. The G.A.O. is the investigative arm of Congress.
Mr. Chamorro gave his affidavit to Paul Reichler, a Washington lawyer representing Nicaragua in its World Court case against the United States. The United States has refused to participate in the case, saying the court does not have jurisdiction.
Mr. Chamorro said he remained opposed to the Sandinistas and had given the affidavit because ''as a Nicaraguan I feel a responsibility to tell the truth to the International Court.''
Mr. Chamorro's affidavit says the C.I.A. gave rebel officers detailed instructions last year about how to lobby specific members of Congress to renew aid by ''placing them in a position of looking soft on Communism.'' One way to do that, he said C.I.A. officers told them, was ''to contact certain prominent individuals in the home districts of various members of Congress as a means of bringing pressure on these members to change their votes.''
Rebel Leader Critical of West
DALLAS, Sept. 11 - A Nicaraguan rebel criticized the Western nations today for making the insurgents ''beg for help.''
The rebel, Adolfo Calero Portocarrero, who leads the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, drew applause from a conference of the World Anti-Communist League when he said that the Nicaraguan rebels and other anti-Communist guerrillas were carrying on ''a fight that ought to be the fight of the more advanced countries.''
''We ought not to have to beg for help as we have had to do,'' he said. ''They are obligated to provide us the help -material help, political help, and so forth. If they want their national values to prevail, the fundamental human values, they have an obligation to be at our side.''
About 300 delegates from 90 countries are attending the weeklong gathering of the Anti-Communist League, an organization founded in Taiwan in 1967 and headed by Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub, a retired Army officer.
House Inquiry Is Halted
WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 - Representative Lee H. Hamilton, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said today that the committee was stopping its investigation into reports that the White House had given illegal aid to the Nicaraguan rebels.
Mr. Hamilton, who is an Indiana Democrat, said that Robert C. McFarlane, the President's national security adviser, in a closed session on Tuesday, had denied any violations of the law.
White House officials who would not allow their names to be used have said that a member of the National Security Council staff in the White House, Lieut. Col. Oliver North, had been involved in rebel activities.
Mr. Hamilton said that unless the committee could hear from the people who had described Mr. North's activities, there was nothing further to do.