Contras Invite Commission Probe on Rights Violations

A U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebel group, responding to charges that it is guilty of widespread atrocities, asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Friday to investigate allegations of human rights violations on both sides of Nicaragua’s civil war.

The faction, the Honduras-based Nicaraguan Democratic Force, asked the commission to investigate charges of abuses both by its own guerrillas, known as contras, and by the leftist Managua regime. It also invited members of Congress to accompany its guerrillas on raids into Nicaragua--an offer no congressman has yet taken up.

The proposals were part of a political counterattack by the rebels after several human rights organizations made charges against them in advance of Congress’ vote on renewed CIA aid.

“We believe these charges are politically motivated,” said the contra group’s Washington representative, Bosco Matamoros. “We reject their conclusions.”

However, the human rights commission, an arm of the Organization of American States, said it is not likely to launch an investigation.

“According to our statute, we only investigate human rights violations committed by governments, not non-governmental authorities,” said Edmundo Vargas, executive secretary of the commission. “We’ve never acted on this kind of complaint before. We will study it, but there is this problem.”

Matamoros said the contras also hope that Nicaragua’s Permanent Commission on Human Rights, a private organization that has been critical of the Sandinista regime, will look into the charges against them. “We believe the Permanent Commission is unbiased,” he said but added that his group believes a formal request to the panel might weaken its position in Nicaragua.

The contras are campaigning to win approval for $14 million in proposed CIA funding, expected to come to a vote in Congress in April or May. Congress cut off the rebels’ U.S. funding last year after learning that the CIA had used some of the money to mine Nicaragua’s harbors and to run sabotage missions with the participation of American agents.

Opponents of the officially covert program have acknowledged that they are using the charges of human rights violations to lobby for a vote against the funding. Reports detailing charges of dozens of murders, rapes and kidnapings allegedly carried out by the contras were released last week by Americas Watch, the International Human Rights Law Group and the Washington Office on Latin America, private groups that said the charges should prompt Congress to oppose renewed aid.