Ortega Supports Contadora Draft Treaty Assailed by U.S. Allies

President Daniel Ortega on Saturday announced his support for the latest draft of a proposed Central American peace treaty, but the announcement is not expected to break a stalemate in the Contadora Group’s 3 1/2-year search for a settlement of Central American conflicts.

Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador, the principal U.S. allies in the region, have already criticized the draft as unacceptably flawed.

The Sandinista government also offered to submit an inventory of its armament and military installations--but not of its troop levels--to the continuing Contadora negotiations. Nicaragua added that it would agree to a point system for determining weapons limitations, such as one proposed earlier this year by the Contadora Group, which is made up of Mexico, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela.

Lack of agreement on an overall formula for a regional balance of military forces, specifically including limitations on numbers of troops, has been one of three major sticking points in the Contadora talks so far. The other two are lack of an accord on a system for verifying compliance with any treaty and on foreign military exercises in Central America.

In addition, Nicaraguan sources charge that as the Contadora negotiations have begun to concentrate on the military issues, U.S. allies in the region have moved to reopen the political question of democratic government within Nicaragua. That question is of central concern to the United States but one that the Sandinistas say is an internal matter, beyond the scope of an international treaty.

In a nationally broadcast speech Saturday to workers in the provincial city of Matagalpa, Ortega stopped short of offering to sign the latest Contadora treaty draft, but he said, “The only instrument for reaching peace that exists at this time is the peace proposal made by Contadora.”

He added, “It is necessary to conclude the negotiating process so that there are efforts made to cease the aggression (by Nicaraguan rebels) and so that there are conditions of security for the Central American states--for Nicaragua--and so that the peace act as proposed by Contadora can be signed.”

The United States backs the contras, as the rebels fighting Managua are called, and the Sandinistas remain firm in their position that Washington must agree to end support for the contras before a Central American treaty can be signed.

El Salvador has criticized the latest treaty draft as “incomplete and inconcise.” A Honduran government communique last week said the draft failed to establish reasonable and sufficient obligations to guarantee Honduras’ security. Costa Rica’s Foreign Ministry has said that by signing the draft, “we would be falling for the trick of signing an act that will not have precise terms for complying with it.”

In a Foreign Ministry communique and a June 17 letter to the Contadora Group’s foreign ministers made public Saturday, the Sandinista government said that it is willing to deliver a military inventory list on which to base arms reduction negotiations. Previously, the Nicaraguans have said they are willing to negotiate on airplanes, helicopters, military airports, heavy artillery and foreign military bases, foreign advisers and foreign military maneuvers--but not levels of troops.

U.S. allies in the region argue that the Sandinista government tries to export revolution and is a threat to their security. Nicaragua argues that its security needs are greater than those of its neighbors because the others could count on U.S. support in the event of an attack.

In Washington on Saturday, a State Department spokesman issued the following comment on Ortega’s expressed support for the latest treaty draft: “Since the Central American democracies rejected the latest Contadora draft, they have been telling us that the Sandinistas would (offer to) sign it on the eve of the congressional vote on aid to the (Nicaraguan) resistance in an effort to defeat that legislation. This prediction has now apparently been proved correct.”

Congress is scheduled to vote this week on President Reagan’s proposed $100-million package of aid to the anti-Sandinista rebels.