Rights Abuses Led 300,000 to Flee Sandinista Rule, Study Says

Torture and other serious human rights violations by Nicaraguan authorities have led to the exodus of about 300,000 people--10% of the population--since the 1979 Sandinista revolution, according to a study released Tuesday.

The report by the Puebla Institute, a lay Roman Catholic human rights organization, cited a variety of reasons for the exodus, including alleged restrictions on freedom of religion and Sandinista military attacks against civilians.

Titled “Fleeing Their Homeland,” the study was based on interviews with 100 Nicaraguans at refugee camps in Honduras and Costa Rica. None of the refugees testified to abuses by the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan contras or said they had left for that reason, according to the study.

There was no immediate comment on the report from the Nicaraguan Embassy here. But an embassy press release, responding to President Reagan’s appeal on Sunday for renewed aid to the rebels, said U.S. policy has led to the deaths of 20,000 Nicaraguans and the wounding of 20,000 others over the last seven years.

It said that “U.S. mercenary bands roamed our remote regions blowing up power lines, mining our harbors and terrorizing poor villages.”

In the Puebla Institute’s 52-page report, the refugees interviewed gave the following reasons for leaving the country:

--Restriction on freedom of religion. Religious activists suffered harassment and discrimination by the Nicaraguan government.

--Sandinista military attacks. At least 13 separate air or ground assaults in southern Nicaragua have occurred since 1984. The attacks occurred “indiscriminately and without warning.”

--Arbitrary arrest and detention. The government engages in preventive detention without due process as a method of harassment and intimidation.

--Torture and ill treatment in detention. Among the methods used against detainees were severe beatings during interrogation, prolonged deprivation of food and or water and mock executions. There has been “a pattern of torture . . . over the past several years.”

--The military draft. Religious pacifists are given no opportunity for conscientious objector status.

--Economic hardship. Oppressive economic measures were adopted to punish political activists or religious believers whose views do not conform to the official line.

--Forcible resettlement. The Sandinistas have confiscated family-size farms and ordered their former owners to move from their villages into state-run farms.