Contra Chiefs Accept Regional Peace Plan

Leaders of U.S.-backed Nicaraguan contra s, after meeting Friday with Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon Duarte, publicly embraced a regional peace pact signed by five Central American presidents.

But the rebels made it clear that they are not ready to lay down their arms, even though that is one of the main provisions called for in the peace plan signed in Guatemala City on Aug. 7.

“Based on our democratic vocations, we publicly declare that we accept in good faith the Central American peace plan signed by the presidents (of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala),” said Azucena Ferrey, a member of the contra directorate, reading from a statement at a news conference.

“We manifest our political will to initiate direct talks with the Sandinista government (of Nicaragua) that could lead to a cease-fire,” the statement said. “For that purpose, we propose that dialogue at the highest level between the Nicaragua Resistance and Sandinista regime begin in Managua” on Sept. 15, the date proposed by Duarte.

On Aug. 12, Duarte proposed that the Salvadoran government open talks with Marxist-led rebels while the Sandinistas simultaneously talked with the contras on the condition that both rebel groups publicly embrace their regional peace plan.

Cut in All Outside Aid

The pact signed by the five presidents calls for rebels to join a cease-fire, lay down their weapons and join the political process. It also calls for cutting off all outside aid to rebel forces and a prohibition on any country giving sanctuary to insurgents.

At the news conference, a spokesman for the rebel leaders said Duarte “did not ask us to lay down our arms and we are not talking about laying down our arms.”

The rebels also said they no longer would need to operate from the territory of Nicaragua’s neighbors, Honduras and Costa Rica.

“We are struggling inside of Nicaragua. We are in our own territory and we do not have a need for that,” the spokesman said.

The six contra leaders met with Duarte and top Salvadoran officials for five hours. Duarte said before the meeting that he would ask the rebels to accept the peace plan and renounce violence as a way to achieve power.

First Official Meeting

The meeting with Duarte was the first official meeting between the president, one of the staunchest U.S. allies in the area, and the contra leaders.

Before closing the door to reporters, Duarte lectured the rebels on his view of the regional peace plan, saying it was “based on good faith, believing that (Nicaraguan President) Daniel Ortega means what he says and that I mean what I say.”

Contra leaders present were the six members of the high command: Adolfo Calero, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, Alfredo Cesar, Azucena Ferrey, Alfonso Robelo and Aristides Sanchez, along with military leader Enrique Bermudez and others.

Nicaragua, which gives logistical and moral support to El Salvador’s Marxist-led rebels, would be required to halt all aid under the regional plan.

Calero, expressing the rebels’ deep mistrust of the leftist Sandinista government, had said on his arrival at the meeting that “we will never lay down our guns and then talk. That is not logical.”

Nicaragua has said it will talk only to President Reagan, whom they call the chief of the contras.