American, 12 Others Reported Seized in Contra Raid

Contras attacked a village in northern Nicaragua and seized 13 people, including an American volunteer for the Witness for Peace organization, group officials said Friday.

Edward Griffin, local director of the U.S.-based Witness for Peace, said Richard Boren of Elkin, N.C., was abducted during the guerrilla attack Tuesday in the mountain village of Mancotal, about 75 miles north of Managua in an area where rebels operate regularly.

Four people defending the village and two Contras were killed in the attack, a Defense Ministry communique said.

Gail Farris, U.S. southeast regional coordinator for Witness for Peace, said 11 people were wounded in the attack.

In Washington, Contra spokesman Bosco Matamoros said the group was “detained” by rebel forces who suspected them of being foreign military collaborators working with the Sandinista government.

Matamoros said the 13 will be released as soon as a “trustworthy” Nicaraguan is found to return them to a safe location.

Witness for Peace sources said Boren, 30, had been in Nicaragua since November, “documenting Contra human rights abuses and leading delegations to areas of conflict.”

Witness for Peace describes itself as a “politically independent organization which opposes U.S. support for the war against Nicaragua, while not taking sides on internal political issues.”

Dennis Marker, Witness for Peace’s Washington director, said the organization has documented abuses by the Sandinistas and Contras, although “our experience in the last four years is that the large majority of abuses are Contra abuses.”