Contras’ Offer to Talk Rejected by Sandinistas

The Sandinista government, rejecting an overture by the Nicaraguan rebels, declared Monday that it will not negotiate with the contras “either directly or indirectly.”

Spelling out Nicaragua’s hard-line position in an interview, Ambassador Carlos Tunnermann condemned the United States for its past aid to the contras and said that “any self-respecting government would refuse to negotiate with a group armed by a foreign power.”

“We will not negotiate with the contras either directly or indirectly. We are going to carry out national reconciliation through the Contadora peace process. Why should a legitimate government negotiate with opponents armed by a foreign power just because Mr. Reagan doesn’t like us?”

A Democratic proposal being studied in Congress, one of several aimed at forging a compromise on the issue of providing military aid to the contras, would provide for up to six months of peace negotiations between the Sandinistas and the contras before any of the aid would be released. Contra leaders have suggested that opposition groups in Nicaragua could negotiate with the Sandinistas on behalf of the rebels.

The Contadora peace process was initiated in January, 1983, by Panama, Venezuela, Mexico and Colombia to try to resolve Central American conflicts through diplomacy. But with President Reagan refusing to negotiate with the Sandinistas and Nicaragua refusing to negotiate with the rebels, the process has been stymied.

Tunnermann contended that Nicaragua has continued to work on the Contadora peace process “in good faith” and said it plans to participate in the next Contadora meeting in Caracas, Venezuela, on April 5-6.

O’Neill Plans Latin Trip

House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) announced that during Congress’ Easter recess, he will visit Venezuela and other Latin American countries supporting the Contadora negotiations.

Meanwhile, a senior Reagan Administration official told reporters that more than 1,000 Nicaraguan troops had crossed the border into Honduras on Sunday in what he called “a serious thing legally as well as politically.”

The official said there have been a hundred such cross-border attacks in recent months, but none of them involved more than 200 soldiers. He blamed the escalation on the delay in getting aid to the contras, who are camped in Honduras.

The Senate is scheduled to vote Wednesday or Thursday on Reagan’s $100-million aid package for the contras, which the House defeated last week. Although the President eventually is expected to get most of what he wants for the rebels, it could take several more weeks to reach a compromise acceptable to both the House and Senate.

False Accusation Charged

Tunnermann, during a lengthy luncheon interview with a group of reporters, contended that the Administration was making the charges about Nicaraguan troops crossing into Honduras to support a false accusation “that Nicaragua is trying to subvert neighboring countries.”

The ambassador said that the last attack across the Honduran border was carried out a day before the House vote on contra aid when rebel troops targeted an electrical installation inside Nicaragua “and our army was mobilized and effectively repelled the attack.”

But he said that the Nicaraguan army has “precise and permanent instructions” never to cross into Honduras. He maintained that when Nicaraguan troops have crossed into Honduras it has been because of imprecise identifications along their common 310-mile border.

Favors Observation Force

Tunnermann suggested that Honduras join Nicaragua in forming a combined observation force to monitor any future border crossings from either country. He said it could be patterned after a primarily civilian observation force formed by Nicaragua and Costa Rica to monitor any border incursions. The two countries have no formal agreement on the matter, he said, but operate the observation force through an “understanding.”

The ambassador, a soft-spoken lawyer and educator who studied in Washington 11 years ago under a Guggenheim Fellowship, said that “the contras may win a victory in Washington, but never in Nicaragua.”

Assessing present U.S. policy toward Nicaragua, he said “logic suggests” that Reagan eventually “will send in troops.”

Escalation Predicted

If Congress approves military aid for the contras, he said, the next step will be to send in military advisers “and it could be expected to escalate just as the Vietnam War did.”

The result, he said, would be “a very bloody war. We are going to resist to the bitter end. The U.S. may be able to put in a puppet regime but a majority of Nicaraguans would take to the mountains. A war would last many years. We are experienced in guerrilla warfare. There would be protests throughout the world, and it would have a severely negative impact on the U.S. image in Latin America.”

Tunnermann said his government’s records show that between 1980 and Sept. 4, 1985, the contras have killed 3,652 Nicaraguans, including 146 women and 210 children under the age of 12. He said 7,599 rebels have been killed but listed no women or children. The contras, he said, wounded 4,039 Nicaraguans and abducted 5,232 others during that period, and their attacks left 240,000 homeless.

Tunnermann blamed all the casualties on U.S. “terrorist policy.”