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Bush Asks Contras to Turn In Weapons

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From Reuters

President Bush said today he was asking U.S.-backed Nicaraguan Contras to give up their weapons in the long struggle against the leftist Sandinista government, and expressed confidence they will do so.

Bush was asked by reporters if he is worried that the rebels might refuse to lay down their arms despite the election victory Sunday of U.S.-backed opposition leader Violeta Barrios de Chamorro over Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega.

“No, I’m not worried, they will,” Bush said as he left the Century Plaza hotel for another stop on his California visit.

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Asked if he was telling them to do so, he said, “Yeah, put it on the wire.”

Chamorro has asked the rebels to lay down their weapons and return home. Ortega similarly has asked for their disbandment. About 6,000 Contras, who were given millions of dollars in U.S. aid over the years, have been camped in bases in Honduras, which borders Nicaragua.

A rebel spokesman said Wednesday the Contras were ready to discuss their position with Chamorro’s party.

Later, Bush praised law enforcement officials as “unsung heroes” as he toured a new 2,064-bed jail in Saugus that he said proved “tough talk is simply not enough” in fighting crime.

Bush was given a tour of the not-yet-opened North County Correctional Facility by Sheriff Sherman Block, who showed him the Spartan cells in the maximum-security facility.

A major part of Bush’s own anti-crime package is concentrated on prison expansion.

The President said after his brief tour: “I will never forget it. It was long enough to bring anyone face to face with the results of what institutions like this represent . . . capacity for violence, the power of corruption, the ability to turn our back on right and do wrong.”

Addressing law enforcement officers outside the prison, Bush said, “All too often you are the unsung heroes in the war on crime and our assault on drugs.”

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Facilities like the new $131-million jail show that ‘tough talk is simply not enough. If you’re going to be tough on crime, you’ve got to be tough on criminals,” he said.

Bush then headed to address a luncheon gathering of the Republican Governors Assn. and later was to speak at a dinner of the California Chamber of Commerce.

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