Sandinistas Warn Foes of Military Draft

The Sandinista government, faced with growing resistance to military conscription, declared Saturday that it will not permit its critics to demonstrate against “the defensive capacity of the revolution.”

Backing up the warning, a police judge summarily sentenced 13 opposition activists to six-month jail terms for allegedly starting two nights of rioting here last week.

The disturbances by more than 1,000 people, who stoned a police station and burned two government cars, was the first major violence against compulsory military service since 1984. It occurred in a town that is called the cradle of the 1978-79 insurrection that swept the Sandinistas into power.

The draft has become the most volatile issue in Nicaragua since the government lifted a state of emergency last month to undermine support in the U.S. Congress for the 6-year-old Contra insurgency. In early February, the Sandinista army began one of its periodic call-ups of thousands of males ages 17 to 25 for two years’ service.

Affected by Peace Hopes

Government critics have used their newly regained freedom of press and assembly to campaign against the draft. Meanwhile, peace hopes raised by Congress’ decision Feb. 3 to deny new aid to the Contras have apparently hampered normal recruiting, prompting the army to resort to roundups of the youths in movie theaters, dance halls and city streets.

In its first public response to the problem, the Sandinista directorate moved to limit public dissent against conscription. Speaking here Saturday, one of its nine comandantes, Bayardo Arce, charged that the issue is being inflamed by right-wing Nicaraguan politicians and the opposition newspaper La Prensa.

Addressing a crowd that included 1,000 army volunteers, Arce said the latest call-ups are intended to keep the army at current strength and bring a quick end to the war.

“The defeat of the Contras is a matter of little time,” he said. “But their allies, the servants of (President) Reagan’s policies in Nicaragua, are trying to weaken the capacity of our army, to keep us from annihilating them once and for all.”

“We are not against the civic struggle,” he added. “The opposition parties can have their marches and criticize our policies. What we cannot accept is that they use the civic struggle to promote counterrevolutionary activity.”

Explains Regime’s Stand

Trying to define such illicit activity, he said the government will not allow any opposition rally to “take up the campaign against the defensive capacity of the revolution.”

Police arrested at least 18 people on charges of inciting the riots here last Monday and Tuesday. Most were local leaders of the Independent Liberal, Social Democratic and Social Christian parties.

Federico Lopez, the top Sandinista official in the Masaya region, told reporters Saturday that 13 of those arrested had been sentenced by a police court.

Police courts are a special tribunal in Nicaragua that has been criticized by international human rights groups. Police courts sentence prisoners accused of minor offenses without granting them legal defense or a trial.

Rioting against the draft first erupted in 1984 several months after it was instituted. Then, unlike now, the government had emergency powers to hold prisoners without charge and to censor the press. Instigators were arrested and the unrest quickly subsided.

As the draft resurfaced as a public controversy, 14 political parties from the conservative right to the Communist left united against it. In a letter to President Daniel Ortega last week, they said forced recruitment cast doubt on his willingness to comply with the regional peace accord he signed last August and showed “the despotic character” of his rule.

While pro-government newspapers charge that draft resistance is led by the opposition, La Prensa has cast it as the spontaneous reaction of women who do not want their sons to die in a war that is supposed to be ending.

Nearly every day, the paper publishes statements from women in scattered towns, denouncing the draft as “a hunt for children.” In Masaya on Saturday, several women told a reporter that police had snatched children under draft age from their arms.

Lopez said that all but 29 of the 180 youths rounded up here Monday were let go after it was proven that they had already served in the army or were under age. He said that 1,350 youths from the Masaya region were inducted into the army last week, including the 1,000 volunteers.

In his speech, Arce accused dissident leaders of sending their children abroad to evade the draft. He said draft resisters who are caught will be jailed and put to work making army boots and uniforms.

While expressing sympathy for mothers of draft-age boys, he warned them to avoid being “manipulated” into confrontations with the police. Instead, he said, they should march to the U.S. Embassy and demand that Washington instruct the Contras to lay down their arms.

When Arce finished speaking, the 1,000 volunteers boarded 20 East German-made trucks, whooping it up as they rolled off to basic training. Some of their mothers wept.

Giving an Example

“We have to give an example to those who are reluctant to defend the revolution,” said Carlos Morales, 17, before leaving.

Humberto Lopez, a 21-year-old army veteran, said that his brother, Jose Lopez, 17, was “obliged to volunteer.”

“The Army has been pursuing him,” Humberto explained. “He knew he could not hide any longer.”