Contra Rebels Kidnap 13 People in Nicaragua, One an American

Contra rebels kidnaped 13 people in northern Nicaragua, including an American volunteer for the Witness for Peace organization, its local director said today.

Edward Griffin, the local director for the organization, identified the kidnaped American as Richard Boren, 29, of Elkin, N.C.

Organization officials said Boren was a Witness for Peace volunteer in the Jinotega province of Nicaragua and had been documenting Contra activities, including human rights abuses.

Witness for Peace opposes the Contras and the Reagan Administration’s policies in Central America.

Griffin said Boren was abducted Tuesday in the Mancotal area of Jinotega province, about 120 miles north of Managua. It is a zone where the Reagan Administration-backed rebels operate regularly in their six-year fight against the Sandinista government.

A Defense Ministry communique said two Contras and four defenders of the resettlement village were killed in the attack. It said the Contras’ leader, identified only as Wilmer, was one of the dead rebels.

Generally, kidnaped civilians are held for a few days by the Contras and then released.

Witness for Peace said Boren has been in Nicaragua since November “documenting Contra human rights abuses and leading delegations to areas of conflict.”

The group’s statement said Boren is a self-employed construction worker and worked for three years with the Peace Corps in Ecuador before going to Nicaragua.

Last October, another Witness for Peace volunteer, Paul Fisher, was kidnaped and held 14 days by the Contras.

Dennis Marker, the organization’s Washington director, said Witness for Peace has no connection with the Nicaraguan government and documents abuses by the Sandinistas and Contras, although “our experience in the last four years is that the large majority of abuses are Contra abuses.”

He said Witness for Peace has 32 full-time volunteers in Nicaragua.