Honduras Says It Will Push to Disband Contras

This Central American nation will forge ahead with a plan for the disbanding of U.S.-backed Nicaraguan Contras despite President Bush’s insistence that the rebel army not be demobilized until there is democracy in Nicaragua, a senior official said Friday.

“We respect the point of view of the U.S. government, but President (Jose) Azcona (Hoyo) has expressed very clearly that he will follow his own interests,” Honduran Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez Contreras told reporters.

The 12,000 Contras camped in eastern Honduras should leave “as soon as possible,” he added.

Azcona said Wednesday that he will present a plan for the rapid demobilization of the Contras at a Central American peace summit scheduled for Aug. 5-7 in Honduras.

The Honduran plan was drawn up under terms of an agreement reached at a Central American presidential summit last February which called for the rebels’ ouster from Honduras in exchange for political reforms leading to free elections in Nicaragua in February, 1990.

Lopez said Honduras “eulogizes and supports” a resolution approved unanimously Thursday by the U.N. Security Council, including the United States, calling for demobilization of the Contras as part of a pacification process in Central America.

But in press reports Friday, Bush was quoted as saying that he had telephoned Azcona to assure him of continued U.S. support in the face of rising domestic pressure to dismantle the Contra army.

Bush said he is determined to see to it that the rebel forces would not be demobilized until there was genuine democracy in Nicaragua, the editors of the U.S. publication Conservative Digest told reporters after an interview with the President on Thursday.