Contras Reportedly Seize U.S. Religious Group

Pro-American Nicaraguan rebels opened fire on a U.S. religious delegation during a “boat ride for peace” Wednesday along the river separating Nicaragua from Costa Rica and captured the delegation and accompanying journalists, a spokesman for the religious group said.

The spokesman for Witness for Peace, which was in radio communication with the Americans on the boat, said that all 43 passengers--29 Witness for Peace volunteers and 14 journalists, most of them Americans--emerged unhurt after men firing automatic weapons forced the boat to the Costa Rican side of the San Juan River.

But the spokesman said that the 43 people were being held in Costa Rica by the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance, a rebel group headed by Eden Pastora and known by its Spanish initials as ARDE.

The Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry said an army helicopter spotted the group while flying over Las Cruces, Nicaragua, 40 miles east of San Carlos, wire services reported from Managua. “They have been found and photographed,” ministry spokeswoman Angela Saballos said. She said the group was in three huts and several small boats were docked nearby.

Witness for Peace, an ecumenical Christian organization that has been openly critical of the rebels, has the avowed purpose of bringing peace to the region.

Propaganda Ploy Suggested

The Nicaraguan government also blamed the rebels, who constitute one faction of the so-called contras who are seeking to topple the Sandinista government, for the attack. But contra spokesmen denied involvement in the incident.

A spokesman for another rebel group, who asked not to be identified by name, suggested that the apparent kidnaping might be a propaganda ploy engineered by Nicaraguan government operatives posing as rebels in hopes of undermining contra credibility.

The State Department said only that “we are investigating but cannot confirm these reports.” The U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica dispatched three officials to the area where the Americans are believed to be held, but an embassy spokesman said the missing persons could be on either side of the river.

The Reagan Administration asked the Nicaraguan and Costa Rican governments to help find the 43 missing people, who set forth on a 50-foot barge Tuesday in defiance of public threats by Pastora to order his troops to “shoot the wolves in sheep’s clothing” as the peace activists drifted down the river through an area controlled until June by the rebel forces.

Pastora rejected the religious group’s claim to be nonpolitical, noting that its members have been openly critical of the contras.

Before their departure, the delegation released a statement saying that its members would “hold President Reagan and those members of Congress who voted for contra aid responsible for any injury which the contras may inflict on our group.”

Yvonne Dilling, a Washington-based spokesman for Witness for Peace, offered an account of the attack based on radio communication between the boat and the group’s Managua office during the episode and a radio conversation with a group member two hours later.

She said that the assault by Nicaraguan rebels began just before 8 a.m. (Nicaragua time) as men wearing partial military uniforms began firing warning shots at the boat from the Costa Rican side of the river.

By Dilling’s account, radio operator Warren Armstrong of Wayne, Pa., on board the craft, said it was forced to the Costa Rican side by three armed men, whom he identified as contras. Dilling said more gunfire was heard, including the sounds of automatic weapons, and then “men’s voices laughed.”

Contact Re-established

About two hours later, Dilling said, radio contact between Managua and the group was re-established and the Managua office asked if everyone was safe. She said Armstrong, speaking in Spanish, replied: “They are treating us well. . . . Everything is fine. . . . We are with our brothers.” Dilling said brothers is a term contras in the area use to address each other and suggested that Armstrong was trying to inform the office of the identity of his captors.

The capture came in an area often used by rebels for staging attacks against government troops. Fighting raged there as recently as last week, and Nicaraguan troops have clashed with Costa Rican border guards in the area.