Ortega Assails U.S., Demands Direct Talks

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, denouncing U.S. “terrorism in Central America” to an audience just two blocks from the White House, demanded Wednesday that President Reagan begin direct talks with his Sandinista government “so that we may find the manner in which to normalize our relations.”

In an hourlong speech to the Organization of American States’ annual General Assembly, Ortega accused President Reagan of reneging on a pledge to talk directly with his government once Nicaragua had begun cease-fire negotiations with U.S.-backed Contra leaders.

Administration officials called Ortega’s demand for direct talks “a step backward” and rejected it outright. On Monday, Reagan had proposed regional talks among the United States, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica, once “serious” cease-fire discussions between the Sandinistas and Contras were under way.

Indirect Talks Expected

Shortly after Ortega’s address, two members of the Contras’ political leadership said they expect indirect talks with the Sandinista regime to begin within a week and to last at least two months.

Contra leaders Alfonso Robelo and Pedro Joaquin Chamorro said that the rebels’ negotiating commission plans to meet with the likely intermediary in the talks, Nicaraguan Roman Catholic Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, either in Washington or somewhere in Central America.

Ortega’s speech in the ornate, drafty OAS hall kicked off a day of diplomatic back-and-forth over the shaky peace process that generated some publicity but little visible progress.

Ortega Meets Wright

The Nicaraguan leader met for about 90 minutes with House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.), Congress’ most prominent supporter of the peace agreement worked out by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez, but neither would comment on the substance of the talks. Sandinista officials last week asked Wright to serve as an intermediary in the talks, but he declined.

Ortega was to visit a Washington church Wednesday evening to meet with religious groups.

The Contras’ six-member political directorate, all exiled from Nicaragua, gathered in the OAS hall to hear Ortega’s speech but did not speak to him or other Nicaraguan officials. Robelo said he will meet with Wright later this week and that other Contra leaders plan to meet with South American diplomats at the OAS session to solicit support for their cause.

Ortega, shunning his customary military fatigues for a gray business suit, appeared to take little note of generally conciliatory speeches delivered to the OAS foreign ministers on Monday and Tuesday by Reagan and Secretary of State George P. Shultz. Instead, he delivered a rambling, off-the-cuff address that relied heavily on readings from international law books.

‘100%’ Pledge Repeated

He repeated earlier pledges to comply “100%” with the provisions of the peace pact signed by Nicaragua and its neighbors last August, which calls for a general amnesty for the region’s insurgent forces, democratic political reforms, a halt to outside aid to guerrillas and an end to a state of emergency.

The Sandinistas so far have released 981 of the nation’s 6,500 or more political prisoners and restored some political rights to citizens. But they have balked at lifting a state of emergency or making other reforms until their neighbors have fully complied with the peace terms and the Contra war has ended.

On Wednesday, Ortega charged that American meddling in the peace process and Nicaraguan affairs has kept the Sandinista regime from abiding fully by the peace accord. To support his argument, he devoted nearly half his speech to reciting a 1986 International Court of Justice ruling, in which the United States was found to have illegally mined Nicaraguan harbors.

Ortega accused the White House of waging a “terrorist war” against him, financing 140 aerial resupply missions to Contra forces inside Nicaragua since the signing of the peace accord and making 1,740 reconnaissance flights over the nation since Reagan took office.

‘Facing the Colossus’

“Nicaragua wants to make it a matter of record that it is its will, its firm will, to comply with these agreements,” he said. “But we are facing the colossus--the colossus that, when a colossus makes a mistake, his errors are colossal also.”

Ortega called for the International Commission on Verification and Follow-Up, the body assigned to monitor the peace plan, to begin on-the-spot checks of compliance with the peace pact “as soon as possible.” He implied that inspectors will find that Nicaragua’s neighbors, especially Honduras, are harboring U.S.-built camps for Contra rebels in defiance of the accord.

“The bases installed in Central America are bases installed by the U.S. government to supply and train the mercenaries,” Ortega said. “If we are interested in peace, then we must be ready, all of us must be ready to open the doors to the commission so that it can visit any place.”

Nicaragua, he said, would allow a thorough inspection to refute what he called U.S.-inspired lies that Soviet and Cuban troops are in his country.

Speech an ‘Absurdity’

Contra political leaders later scoffed at Ortega’s remarks. Contra directorate member Adolfo Calero called the speech an “absurdity” and said that no rebel military forces now are harbored outside Nicaragua. Administration officials have recently claimed that the once-sizable Contra presence in Honduras and Costa Rica has been almost eliminated.

“I had hoped to hear from Mr. Ortega a call to a national reconciliation,” directorate member Alfredo Cesar said. “Instead of that, he delivered a speech that puts a halt to the peace dynamics of the last few days. . . . There was nothing new in it.”