Panama Orders Probe Into Noriega Charges

President Eric Delvalle said Sunday night that he had ordered an investigation into allegations of corruption, election fraud and conspiracy to murder against Panama’s top military officer.

In a nationally broadcast speech aimed at defusing a month-old political crisis, Delvalle said the accusations against Gen. Manuel A. Noriega, commander of the defense force, “demand a prompt and effective investigation.”

He said he had asked Atty. Gen. Carlos Villalaz to undertake the inquiry. The attorney general is appointed by the president, a civilian, in Panama’s military-controlled government.

Delvalle also called for talks with opposition leaders “to reach a solemn commitment for a national conciliation, based on the justice, democracy and liberty that we all anxiously desire.”

Noriega’s Removal Demanded

But his eight-minute radio and television address seemed unlikely to satisfy the opposition, which is demanding the removal of Noriega.

Even before the president spoke, Ricardo Arias Calderon, head of the Christian Democratic Party and a prominent opposition leader, declared the protests would continue until Noriega agrees to step down.

“What the whole movement is aimed at is, first, the removal of Gen. Noriega, and, if he remains in Panama, his investigation and judgment, and, second, the establishment of a new government that will, very rapidly and very effectively, democratize our system of government,” Arias said.

“If Mr. Delvalle does not refer to those two objectives of the movement, then what Mr. Delvalle will say will be worthless,” he added in an interview before the speech.

‘Climate of Liberty’

Delvalle also said there was a need to “surround the electoral process of 1989 (when the next presidential elections are scheduled) with the necessary guarantees to assure a climate of liberty and political impartiality.”

He offered no concrete steps to reach that goal.

The most recent round of protests against two decades of military dominance over Panama’s government began June 9 after Noriega’s second in command, Col. Roberto Diaz Herrera, was forced to retire and publicly accused the general of involvement in the 1985 death of opposition leader Hugo Spadafora.

He also claimed Noriega helped rig the 1984 presidential election and plotted the death of the general’s predecessor, Gen. Omar Torrijos, who was killed in a 1981 plane crash.

Many Demonstrations

Since Diaz Herrara’s accusation, there have been nearly daily pro- or anti-government demonstrations, many of them violent.

On Saturday, there was a massive but peaceful anti-government demonstration in Panama City by thousands of women dressed in white and accompanied by vehicles with the drivers honking their horns.

When the march ended in central Panama City, the demonstrators heard a speech denouncing the government by Mayin Correa, a National Assembly member who recently bolted the governing coalition and took refuge in the Argentine Embassy saying she feared for her life.

Correa returned safely to the embassy following the demonstration.

‘Positive Changes’

The opposition is a coalition of political and business groups called the National Civic Crusade.

U.S. Ambassador Arthur Davis, speaking to reporters Saturday during an Independence Day celebration at a U.S. Army base in the Canal Zone, said: “The next few days will be very productive. There will be positive changes.” He would not elaborate.

The government has accused the Reagan Administration of meddling in Panama’s internal affairs. Noriega claims Washington instigated the disturbances to undermine agreements that will turn the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal over to Panama in the year 2000.

On June 11, the government decreed a state of emergency that suspended constitutional guarantees in an effort to stop the violence.

Businesses Burned

The state of emergency was lifted last Tuesday, four days after the U.S. Senate adopted a resolution calling on Noriega to step down. The resolution also urged the military to stay out of politics.

On Thursday, pro-government militants sacked and burned a clothing store and two other businesses in a building owned by the family that publishes the nation’s leading opposition daily newspaper, La Prensa.

The day before, government supporters led by at least eight Cabinet members attacked buildings in the U.S. Embassy complex with rocks and bottles of paint.