U.S. Cites Role of Cubans in Contras War : Troops in Nicaragua Becoming More Than Advisers, Official Says

Cuban troops in Nicaragua are moving gradually beyond an advisory role to participate directly in combat against the U.S.-funded anti-Sandinista rebels, Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams charged Thursday.

Abrams, speaking before a House subcommittee, also confirmed that the rebels, known as contras, shot down a Nicaraguan helicopter with Cuban troops aboard during a battle Monday.

Other officials said that two Cubans, reportedly the pilot and co-pilot, were on the helicopter along with 12 Nicaraguan troops when it crashed in the mountainous battle zone northeast of Managua, killing all aboard.

“For the first time . . . we may be seeing Cubans move into a combat role on the mainland of North America,” Abrams warned.

Cuban Role Limited

Abrams and other officials noted that the Cubans’ role in the five-year-old guerrilla war remains limited. They said that the Cubans are attached to Nicaraguan units as advisers, pilots and technicians, not deployed as front-line troops.

The United States has “previously told the Sandinistas that the presence of Cuban combat units would be unacceptable to us,” Abrams said. “But there are more and more reports of Cubans involved in combat,” he added.

Another official said that the CIA has collected information indicating that Cuban officers have commanded Nicaraguan troops in the field--in one instance, directing air strikes against the contras in a battle last summer.

“They have been attached to combat units for more than a year, especially the counterinsurgency battalions,” which have borne the brunt of the fighting against the contras, he said. “But now we believe they are assuming an increased command role in combat action.”

Denied by Managua

In Managua, Lt. Elena Gutierrez, a Nicaraguan Defense Ministry spokesman, denied Thursday that any foreigners are fighting on the Sandinista side. “There are only combatants of the people, Nicaraguan combatants,” Gutierrez said. “There is no foreigner participating in combat.”

The CIA estimates that 2,500 to 3,500 Cuban military personnel are in Nicaragua, Abrams said. More than 30--and perhaps as many as 60--have died in combat, he said.

Abrams told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the new evidence of Cuba’s role in the guerrilla war should prompt Congress to renew U.S. military support for the contras. Congress cut off military aid in 1984 but voted this year to provide $27 million in “humanitarian assistance,” non-lethal items including food, medicine, trucks and tents.

“My personal view is that we should give some kind of lethal aid or we’re going to see a terrorist base and a Soviet base in Central America,” Abrams said.

But his plea met a skeptical response from Democrats and some Republicans, who questioned him closely about human rights abuses by the rebels; about Honduras’ action in blocking U.S. supply shipments and about the Reagan Administration’s contention that the contras can use trucks and helicopters provided as “humanitarian” aid for transporting guns.

Administration officials said that the contras’ success in destroying the helicopter Monday was significant because the Sandinista regime’s two dozen combat helicopters have become its most effective weapon against the rebels.

Before Congress cut off funding for the CIA’s covert support of the rebels in 1984, CIA helicopter crews flew missions for the contras. The pilots, who included U.S. civilians, provided air cover for several contra raids and on at least one occasion came under fire from Sandinista units.

The contras have been attempting to shoot down a helicopter for several months, but Monday was their first confirmed success. At least twice before, the contras claimed to have downed helicopters, but their claims were later proven to be unfounded.

Officials said a special contra task force shot down the helicopter with a SAM-7, a Soviet-made shoulder-held anti-aircraft missile. They said preliminary reports indicated that the helicopter was a Soviet-supplied MI-8.

The Sandinista government reported Wednesday that the helicopter had crashed but said the cause was under investigation. On Thursday, the Nicaraguan Defense Ministry published a list of the casualties and said all 14 victims were Nicaraguans.

Late Thursday night, the Nicaraguan government confirmed that an MI-8 helicopter had been shot down by a “SAM-7 type ground-to-air missile fired by mercenary forces serving the United States.” A Foreign Ministry official also said that, according to Nicaraguan intelligence information, the United States had supplied about 30 SAM-7s to the contras at about midyear.

“Nicaragua publicly denounces the seriousness of this fact, since it is the first time that such a sophisticated weapon as ground-to-air SAM-7 missiles have been delivered to terrorist groups,” a government statement. “The irresponsible attitude of the U.S. government in giving these arms to terrorist groups in their service elevates the Central American conflict to previously unknown levels and seriously endangers civil aviation in the area.”

The government said it is recalling its ambassador in Washington for consultations and requesting a meeting of the U.N. Security Council. It said it has sent notes of protest to the United States and to Honduras, where the contras have base camps. Earlier this year, contra officers showed reporters SAM-7 missiles at one of the camps.

In his House testimony, Abrams, speaking on human rights, admitted that the contras have committed abuses including murder and rape. But he said the rebels have begun enforcing the rules of war more strictly and that 19 contras had been found guilty of crimes in “court-martials” since last spring.

A conservative Republican on the panel, Rep. John McCain (R-Ariz.), warned that there is “a fragile consensus” in Congress in favor of non-military aid to the contras, “and that could be eroded if we do not see improvements in human rights.”

“Yes, there have been human rights abuses--and they have established a system to cope with it,” Abrams said. “We have . . . some assurance that they take this quite seriously.”

Abrams acknowledged that the Administration has run into problems in shipping non-military supplies to the contras, but he refused to provide any details in public.

Other officials said the government of Honduras, where the contras’ largest forces are based, has blocked U.S. government shipments to the rebels since October.

Only one planeload of U.S.-supplied aid has been allowed to reach the contras, officials said. A second planeload of privately purchased supplies was allowed to land in Honduras in November, they said.

As a result, supplies have been piling up in warehouses in the United States. One official said that the Hondurans may be holding up the shipments in hope of using the issue as leverage to win increased U.S. aid, but another said the obstacle may simply have been a desire to suspend shipments during Honduras’ just-completed presidential election campaign.

Rep. Michael D. Barnes (D-Md.) also complained that the State Department has refused to cooperate with a congressionally ordered audit of the $27-million aid fund to ensure that the money is being spent only on non-military aid.

Abrams admitted that the Administration has delayed the audit because it believes that some of the fund’s records should remain secret as “intelligence material,” even though the aid program is officially overt.

Abrams said the Administration is negotiating with the House and Senate Intelligence committees to determine whether the contras can use trucks and helicopters supplied as humanitarian aid for moving guns and ammunition.

He told California Rep. Mel Levine (D-Los Angeles) that the law setting up the aid program “was unclear on that question.” Earlier, Administration officials said they intended to allow the contras to use the trucks as military transport.

“The trends are all pretty negative for the Sandinistas,” Abrams said. He said the contras’ army “is growing as fast as we can give them shirts to wear.”

But, he said, “I can’t give you a date” when the contras will win their war.

He charged that the Cuban presence constitutes “a massive Soviet-Cuban intervention into the mainland” of North America.

“And what do you call our direct aid to the contras?” asked liberal Rep. Gerry E. Studds (D-Mass.), an opponent of the rebels.

“That is called fighting a Communist regime,” Abrams said.

Times staff writer William R. Long in Managua contributed to this story.