Contra Leader Assails Regional Peace Package

Contra commander Enrique Bermudez, usually a cool and measured military man, exploded in anger last week over a Central American peace plan that aims for a cease-fire, amnesty and democratic reform in Nicaragua by Nov. 7.

“Amnesty? The ones who need amnesty are (Interior Minister) Tomas Borge and (President) Daniel Ortega,” Bermudez nearly shouted. “There will be democracy in Nicaragua when I can present a case and witnesses against them in court for the crimes they committed, for destroying the economy.”

‘Fought for My Country’

Bermudez pounded his fist on the table at a secret, rebel supply center. “I haven’t committed a crime. I fought for my country.” Bermudez’s uncustomary anger was a sign that the peace plan, signed by the five Central American presidents in Guatemala on Aug. 7, has put the contras on the defensive, and cast doubt on new U.S. funding for the rightist rebels that the contras had felt confident about months ago.

Bermudez said the next few months are “critical” to the survival of his U.S.-backed army fighting to oust the Marxist-led Sandinista government. “We are subject to the swing of the pendulum in Congress.”

Contra leaders and their U.S. advisers are concerned that the Managua government has gained the political initiative through the plan. They do not believe the Sandinistas will fulfill the terms of the peace accord, which has no sanctions for noncompliance.

“The Sandinistas are going to create the perception that they have taken steps toward democratizing Nicaragua, and we run the risk that those who are against further aid will use that as an argument to stop the aid,” Bermudez said.

Bermudez granted a lengthy interview to three reporters who visited a rebel base on the condition that its location not be revealed. The base is nearly dismantled, and several smaller camps have been established to the east, along the Coco River, since the bulk of the contras infiltrated into Nicaragua earlier this year.

During the two-hour interview, Bermudez also said that:

-- He wished he had had “more power in decision-making and more freedom of action” with the $100 million in U.S. aid for the contras that Congress approved last year. The CIA has directed procurement, training and other areas of the guerrilla war.

-- Because of his background as a national guardsman under the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua, Bermudez was prevented by U.S. officials from becoming a combined political and military leader, as was needed to unify anti-Sandinista forces. “I was (accused of being) ‘the Somocista, the one who committed genocide,’ but over the years I converted this organization into an important factor where others failed.”

A Sullied Reputation

-- Contra infighting contributed to a lack of broad support for the rebels, and further sullied Bermudez’s reputation. “From 1983 to 1986, there was a campaign against me from rival groups, many of whom are now in the resistance.”

The 54-year-old military chief has emerged as a more visible contra leader in recent months, in part because he has outlasted several political leaders and several efforts by the United States to rename and restructure the contra organization to make it more appealing to Congress. Last month, Bermudez was invited to Los Angeles along with the current contra directorate to meet with President Reagan for the first time.

The contras asked Reagan to push for approval of non-lethal aid now and for military aid to be put into an escrow account to be released if the peace plan falls apart. House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Texas), who has accused the Reagan Administration of “dragging its feet” on the peace plan, said he opposes the escrow idea.

The plan prohibits all outside aid to rebel groups in the region after Nov. 7.

Bermudez said he believes the Sandinistas signed the Central American peace plan because they were frightened by a less favorable bipartisan plan offered by Reagan and Wright at the same time.

Use of an Intermediary

Wright has since been urging the contra leadership and the Sandinistas to negotiate a cease-fire agreement under the Central American plan, using an intermediary.

Contra political leaders have indicated a willingness to negotiate through a committee of Central Americans selected by the region’s foreign ministers, but Bermudez insisted that was out of the question.

“Our destiny is in our hands. We are not going to put it in the hands of intermediaries,” Bermudez said.

Nicaraguan Defense Minister Humberto Ortega also discounted mediation, and described a cease-fire as simply a transition for rebels who want to accept amnesty. The Sandinista government’s position is that the contras are a mercenary army of the United States and that the Sandinistas will only negotiate with the U.S. government.

“This is not a problem between Nicaragua and that criminal Enrique Bermudez,” President Daniel Ortega said last week. “This is a problem between Nicaragua and the United States.”

Cease-Fire Not Defined

The loosely worded peace plan does not define a cease-fire, nor detail how it might be implemented. Bermudez said that a cease-fire must be in situ, with declared neutral zones, a verification team, and with access for supplying his troops with food and medicine.

Bermudez clearly is worried about the psychological impact of the peace plan on his troops. He called in several field commanders for consultations last week and gave at least one pep talk to combatants at a base camp on the Coco River.

The Sandinistas have distributed letters to the families of contra fighters saying the war is over and that they should seek amnesty, Bermudez said. He said a few fighters had turned in their arms, but he did not specify how many and insisted they were Sandinista infiltrators returning home.

Bermudez, in turn, has put out orders to spread the message that “Communism is condemned.”

“We say that communism is obsolete, that benign (Sandinista) commanders will leave and you will be left behind, that they will go to Cuba but there will be no room on the plane for you, so join the contras,” Bermudez said.

‘Fight to the End’

A cook in one of the contra camps said Bermudez called a meeting of the troops there last week and told them to “fight to the end” and not to trust a Sandinista amnesty offer.

The peace plan, which aims to end all guerrilla wars in Central America, favors the government in Nicaragua just as it favors the U.S.-backed government of President Jose Napoleon Duarte in El Salvador because it does not call for such things as new elections, a new constitution or integration of the guerrillas into the governments’ armies. It rejects armed struggle as a means of taking power.

Sandinista officials say they intend to comply with the peace plan, which they say gives them the opportunity to make a democratic opening that can be interpreted as good will, rather than as their caving in to pressure by the United States. So far, the Sandinistas have named a National Reconciliation Commission to monitor compliance with the plan. They also have allowed the return to Nicaragua of three Roman Catholic clergymen from forced exile.

Under the plan, the Sandinistas must also lift a state of emergency, allow political pluralism and free access to the media by all political groups.

Several contra political leaders have expressed interest in going back to Nicaragua under the terms of the peace plan to test the limits of Sandinista democracy. While some contras believe those efforts would reveal the Sandinistas’ insincerity in opening the political system, others fear it would further marginalize the combatants and ensure an end to contra aid.

Relieve Pressure

Bermudez said his 12,000 troops could survive in the field for three or four months after the current $100-million aid package expires Sept. 30, but he argued that to cease aid now would be to relieve the military and economic pressure that the rebels have put on the Sandinistas, which he claims forces them to live up to the agreement.

The contras received an estimated $80 million in clandestine U.S. aid through the CIA from 1981 to 1984, but Congress cut off that aid after the CIA helped mine Nicaraguan harbors. In the wake of the cutoff, Administration elements have been accused of secretly funneling millions of dollars to the contras in profit from arms sales to Iran--a practice that became known to the public with the eruption of the Iran-contra scandal last year.

In 1985, Congress gave $27 million in so-called “non-lethal” aid to the contras, and last year $100 million was approved, $70 million of it for military equipment, supplies and training. CIA training and direction were also resumed.

“We have gone in two-year cycles. In 1984, they cut our aid, later they gave us humanitarian aid, then military aid, and now again there is pressure to cut our aid,” Bermudez said.

“If they cut our aid again I’m going to feel like we’ve had another Vietnam or a Bay of Pigs . . . totally disillusioned,” he said.

U.S. Aid Too Restrictive

Bermudez said that U.S. control on the $100 million in aid had often been too restrictive for running a guerrilla war. He said, for example, that combatants often needed cash to buy cattle and other food in Nicaragua but that they were not to be given U.S. funds without approval from Washington.

“If I needed 50 blankets in 48 hours, I couldn’t just give a military order to get it. . . . I needed three price quotes to buy them,” he said.

On the other hand, Bermudez said, he had been wrong in trying to persuade the United States to buy more sophisticated aircraft for the aerial resupply operation to combatants because they were too expensive for the budget.

Bermudez, meanwhile, said he has no plans to alter his military strategy between now and Nov. 7, when the terms of the peace plan are scheduled to go into effect.

“They didn’t invite us to sign the accord. The Sandinistas signed it and they agreed to democracy,” Bermudez said. “We are waiting. In the meantime, we will continue our fight.”