Obando Assails Sandinistas for Stalling Talks

Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo said Sunday that the Sandinista government is blocking his bid to mediate the Nicaraguan conflict by refusing to discuss political issues in the next cease-fire talks.

In a homily, the Roman Catholic leader defended his proposal to condition a preliminary 30-day truce on a government amnesty for all political prisoners, full press freedom and a revision of the law obliging young men to serve in the Sandinista army.

“The day we have a broad amnesty will bring reconciliation and take away the suffering of so many families,” he told the parishioners at Las Sierritas church. “Revising the (draft) law will ease so much tension. But the president wants another agenda.”

Speaking to reporters after Mass, the cardinal criticized President Daniel Ortega for insisting that negotiations be limited to the military aspects of a cease-fire.

“The road the president points to seems to lead back to point zero,” he said. “We’re falling into the same old problem, in which the government wants to discuss a cease-fire and the other side wants to discuss the democratization of Nicaragua.

“We will probably end up at an impasse,” he added.

The cardinal’s remarks, the latest in a chilly public exchange with Ortega, put him squarely on the side of the Nicaraguan rebels in a dispute over the agenda for the talks and left it unclear whether they will resume.

The uncertainty appears to be linked to indecision in Washington on whether to resume U.S. aid to the Contras. After rejecting the Administration’s bid for new military and non-lethal aid Feb. 3, Congress is set to vote on the issue again this week.

Ortega asked Obando last November to mediate a cease-fire under terms of the Central American peace accord but now appears to have lost faith in the cardinal’s impartiality.

Exchanged Letters

The two men, Nicaragua’s leading public figures, exchanged unusual open letters last week, blaming each other for the breakdown of the fourth round of peace talks Feb. 19.

At that meeting in Guatemala, Obando’s truce proposal first seemed to have support from both sides. But the Sandinista delegation balked at it after receiving a phone call from Ortega.

The president said last week he was upset that Obando “abruptly suspended” the talks without consulting either side.

Obando replied testily, saying he had sufficient authority to do so. “I am not a robot or a soldier who unconditionally accepts orders from a general,” he wrote. The peace talks might have advanced, he added, “but the government’s delegation kept interrupting the work to consult by telephone with your excellency.”

In the same letter, Obando proposed new talks March 9-11, with amnesty, press freedom and the draft again on the table.

Ortega Rejected Agenda

Ortega rejected that agenda. In a letter Friday, he said the five-nation peace accord calls for cease-fire talks with rebel groups and political dialogue with unarmed opposition leaders, including rebels who accept amnesty.

Later, the president told a Sandinista rally in the town of Masaya: “We hope that Cardinal Obando, who knows the peace agreement very well, will make a maximum effort to stick to the subject of a cease-fire.”

Obando said Sunday he will consult this week with rebel leaders and decide if there is any basis to resume the talks.

Bosco Matamoros, a Contra spokesman, said Sunday the rebels accept the cardinal’s agenda “without conditions.” He charged that the Sandinistas are trying to avoid taking steps required by the peace accord to address “the root of the conflict.”

The government has freed more than 1,000 prisoners since signing the peace accord last August but refuses to let another 3,300 go unless a cease-fire is reached. It has let political opponents reopen a newspaper and a dozen radio news programs but denied them access to a television station.

In recent weeks, government leaders have insisted publicly they will not accept more opposition demands. They have accused the Contras of wanting the peace talks to fail.