Confident of Battle Strength, Contras Now Seek to Clean Up Their Image, Build Civilian Support

Confident of their ability to wage war on a regular basis inside Nicaragua, leaders of U.S.-backed rebels are proposing to attract civilian support with farm and health-aid programs in the battle zones.

They have also reiterated a vow to stop their troops from carrying out on-the-spot executions of captured military and civilian officials of the government.

The rebel statement coincides with reports of recent executions of up to 11 war prisoners and the abduction of at least one draft board official in the Nicaraguan town of Cuapa.

Moves to build civilian support, described as efforts to “humanize” the war, are also aimed at improving the human rights image of the rebels, or contras.

The lack of a firm civilian base in Nicaragua has hampered the rebels’ fighting effort, which is aimed at overthrowing Nicaragua’s Marxist-led Sandinista government. In addition, reports of brutality on the battlefield have long been an obstacle to Reagan Administration efforts to get Congress to authorize funds for the contras.

“We must attend to the people who live in zones we control,” Indalecio Rodriguez, a top official of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, largest of the rebel groups, said in an interview over the weekend. “We are going to give farm implements for the coming harvest and establish health programs with money we get from the United States.”

Congress recently approved $27 million in so-called non-lethal aid for the Nicaraguan rebels.

Strength in Northeast

Rodriguez defined a zone of control as one in which the contras permanently have troops. These zones encompass areas near Nicaragua’s northeastern border with Honduras in Jinotega province, he said.

“It is a place where, when the Sandinistas come, they enter enemy territory,” Rodriguez said.

He estimated that about 20,000 permanent residents and 10,000 refugees live in the region. Food from harvests achieved with rebel aid would help feed contra troops, he said.

The refugees will be organized into camps, he added. To administer the health program, he said, the contras plan to set up a “guerrilla Red Cross.”

Prisoner Exchanges

New paramedic units will also be instrumental in implementing the contras’ “human rights” campaign. The program will include prisoner exchanges, medical treatment of Sandinista wounded, cease-fires to evacuate civilians and free passage for reporters covering the war, Rodriguez said.

“Through the guerrilla Red Cross, we will put into practice international conventions of warfare,” he declared.

Recently, contra officials announced that they were drawing up a new code of conduct for their fighters. They also named a human rights officer in charge of prosecuting crimes against civilians and now, presumably, against prisoners.

Rodriguez said any executions of Sandinista soldiers and functionaries in the past were carried out at the request of local citizens.

‘No More Death Penalties’

“Sometimes, in the euphoria of the moment, the people demand the executions,” Rodriguez said. “However, now we need to organize ourselves and become a serious force. There will be no more death penalties.”

Contra troops often try to round up Sandinista officials after entering villages. In Cuapa, they held a brief kangaroo court in the town plaza and asked citizens to decide the fate of their mayor. The residents asked that he be freed, and the contras complied.

However, captured soldiers were taken to the mountains and shot without the advice of townsfolk. Cuapa’s draft-board official was also taken away and has not been heard from since.

“It’s one thing to talk about this in comfortable surroundings, another in the heat of battle,” said Rodriguez. “This happens in all armies. Look at the United States in Vietnam.”

Human Rights Charges

Contra spokesman Frank Arana accused the Sandinistas of disguising themselves as rebels and exhibiting the targets of their own atrocities as contra victims.

However, human rights groups have long accused the contras of atrocities.

“We find that contra combatants systematically murder the unarmed, including medical personnel, and rarely take prisoners,” said a recent report by Americas Watch, a New York-based human rights group.