American Slain in Nicaragua Aware of Risks, U.S. Says

Americans such as Benjamin E. Linder, who was killed Tuesday during an attack by U.S.-backed rebels in Nicaragua, understand the risks involved when they go abroad into areas of “guerrilla war,” White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Wednesday.

And Linder, in a legal document filed last fall, referred to the dangerous nature of his work as a result of U.S. policy in Nicaragua.

Fitzwater said President Reagan has been informed of the incident, in which Linder and two Nicaraguans were killed. He added that Americans who work in places of civil unrest do so at their own risk.

“We are all aware that there are hundreds of Americans in Nicaragua, many of them sympathetic to and working with the Sandinistas,” he said. “They certainly understand that they put themselves in harm’s way whenever they’re involved in any internal strife in another country.”

Linder, a 27-year-old engineer from Portland, Ore., certainly understood the risks.

In Nicaragua to bring electricity to remote villages, Linder predicted last September that his life would be in danger unless a federal judge prevented U.S. aid for the contras fighting the Sandinista government. He was one of several plaintiffs in a suit seeking to halt government support of the rebels.

“The danger to my physical safety is immediate, and unless an injunction is issued, I may suffer irreparable physical harm as a result of the unlawful activities of the U.S. government,” Linder wrote in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Judge Charles Richey dismissed the suit in February because, he said, it involved a “political question” best left to Congress and President Reagan.

Friends described Linder as a wiry, energetic man with “thick glasses and a big grin.” Anne Lifflander, a physician who worked with him in Nicaragua and saw him last month, recalled how he painted his face and juggled while riding a unicycle to promote a village vaccination campaign.

“Making people in the village aware of what was available--I think he was happiest when he was doing that kind of work,” Lifflander said.

He also took a nighttime unicycle ride down the main dirt road in a city near Camaleona to celebrate the village’s first night with electricity, said Reed Brody, who was Linder’s attorney last fall.

Nicaragua Network, an American support group for Nicaragua, said Linder, who had worked since 1984 to bring electrical power to remote regions in the country, told an interviewer for the Washington Post two weeks ago that he was on a contra “hit list” because of his activities.

A spokesman for one of the contra factions in Honduras acknowledged Wednesday that the guerrillas killed Linder but denied that he was specifically targeted.

Linder and two Nicaraguans were killed while working at the site of a hydroelectric development project in La Camaleona, a village 182 miles northeast of Managua.

According to a witness interviewed by members of Witness For Peace, a U.S. religious group that has volunteers in the region, Linder and two others were “sitting on the ground writing notes” when about six contras appeared and threw hand grenades at the group.

Shrapnel from the grenades killed Linder and one other man, according to Witness For Peace. The contras then opened fire, killing the other Nicaraguan. Four other residents, at least one wounded, ran to safety.

Several U.S. groups denounced the killings Wednesday at press conferences, a rally on the steps of the Capitol and a vigil at contra headquarters in Washington.

“We demand a complete investigation into the U.S. role in Linder’s death,” said a joint statement by Nicaragua Network, Witness For Peace and the Nicaragua Appropriate Technology Project--a group that Linder helped found and that sponsored his stay in Nicaragua.

“We condemn a U.S. policy that sends death and destruction to the people of Nicaragua while U.S. citizens continue efforts to work with the people of Nicaragua in solving their own development problems and in the common effort of peace,” the statement said.

Sen. Mark O. Hatfield (R-Ore.) called Linder “the victim of a war for which the United States bears a major responsibility.” Rep. Les AuCoin (D-Ore.) asked Secretary of State George P. Shultz to investigate the incident.

Times staff writers James Gerstenzang and Norman Kempster also contributed to this report.