Contras Ready to Release 66 POWs
U.S.-backed Contras are ready to release 66 Sandinista government prisoners of war, rebel military chief Enrique Bermudez said Friday.
Bermudez, speaking on the Contras’ clandestine Radio Liberacion, said the prisoners could be released “in any of the Central American countries.”
“We have no interest in holding young prisoners from the Sandinista army, captured during our armed struggle,” Bermudez said.
During high-level peace talks June 9 in Managua between Contra and Sandinista negotiators, the rebels promised to release the 66 prisoners “within a reasonable amount of time,” in Guatemala City. The Contras have yet to fulfill their pledge.
The Sandinistas, meanwhile, say the Contras have captured more than 66 soldiers and claim the rebels also hold hundreds of kidnaped civilians. The Contras deny kidnaping civilians or holding more than 66 Sandinistas.
Bermudez, who claimed that some of the prisoners do not want to return to Nicaragua, said he had contacted the various Central American governments “to see if they will accept these prisoners, so that those men may freely decide whether they want to return to Nicaragua.”
It is believed the prisoners are being held in neighboring Honduras.
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