Call Off Contras, Nicaraguan Urges U.S.

Reiterating his often-stated program for easing tensions between Nicaragua and the United States, President Daniel Ortega on Sunday asked Washington to call off the rightist guerrillas fighting his Sandinista government and then to sit down for new peace talks.

In a radio speech, Ortega made no mention of a new Nicaraguan peace proposal that two Democratic senators, returning to Washington from a trip to Managua, brought back with them after six hours of talks with the Nicaraguan leader.

Ortega likened the U.S.-backed rebels, universally called contras here, to a “dog” that does the bidding of the Reagan Administration. Once Reagan tells them to lay down their arms, he said, other problems between the two countries can be solved.

Ortega spoke two days before Congress is scheduled to vote on the Administration’s request for $14 million in assistance to the rebels. The peace talks he wants renewed, he said, are those that envoys of the two governments held last year in Manzanillo, Mexico. The conversations were terminated three months ago by the United States, which charged that leftist Nicaragua used them for propaganda purposes.

“This is the principal cease-fire: that the U.S. decides to stop its aggression against Nicaragua,” Ortega told a gathering of cattlemen in the town of Juigalpa.

“If the United States ceased fire and decided to renew conversations in Manzanillo . . then there are created conditions for the United States and Nicaragua to normalize relations.”

Ortega also dusted off a Sandinista amnesty proposal for the rebels, who have been operating from bases in Honduras and Costa Rica for about three years.

“Under such conditions (of renewed talks with the United States), we can say to the mercenaries: Gentlemen, we will stop firing, stop our military activities against you, so that through the United Nations or the Red Cross, you can lay down your arms and make a life in Nicaragua.

“Those who want to stay in Honduras, let them stay in Honduras,” he went on. “Those who want to stay in Costa Rica, let them stay in Costa Rica. That is their business.”

Ortega repeated a firm rejection of holding any talks with the contras, an idea that has been pushed by the Reagan Administration and also by some Roman Catholic Church officials and Nicaraguan opposition political leaders.

“We want a dialogue with he who directs the aggression . . . with he who sics his dog on us,” Ortega declared.

The Sandinista regime maintains that the contra forces are made up either of remnants of the National Guard of deposed dictator Anastasio Somoza or of newly recruited mercenaries. Many of the contras’ military leaders are former guardsmen, but their ranks include rural young people unhappy with the government’s programs or its military-conscription policy.