White House to Release Contra Funds : Nicaragua: Bush wants to shift $3.6 million in humanitarian aid to rebels’ repatriation.

The United States plans to use leftover funds from a $47-million humanitarian aid program to help begin repatriating the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said today.

Fitzwater said the Administration hopes to use $3.6 million from the aid package approved by Congress last year to support a repatriation effort overseen by the Organization of American States and the United Nations.

In making the announcement, Fitzwater said the commitment was not made earlier because the Administration held out hope of seeing Congress approve a larger request for $30 million in repatriation funds before its recess last week for Easter.

“This is just a stopgap measure,” Fitzwater said of the immediate $3.6 million earmarked for demobilization of the U.S.-backed rebels. “This isn’t going to deal with the whole problem.”

The United States has urged the Contras to disarm and return to Nicaragua since the upset election victory in February of opposition candidate Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, which signaled the end of an almost decade-long civil war.

The Washington Post reported today that the various parties to the conflict in Nicaragua--the Sandinistas, Chamorro and the Contras--are on the verge of an agreement on the repatriation of the Contras and their families, mostly from camps in neighboring Honduras.

The agreement, pegged to a formal cease-fire and carrying an April 17 target date, has been complicated by the lack of funds or a U.S. commitment to the OAS to supply the funds needed to operate the program, the Post said.

With the political defeat of the Marxist-led Sandinista regime, a primary goal of U.S. foreign policy in Central America was achieved. Now, Fitzwater said, President Bush is determined to press Congress after the Easter recess for action on the full $300 million in aid he has proposed for Nicaragua.

“We believe the money is needed there, that it is a worthy cause, that the United States has pushed this as an ultimate goal of its policy for years and that we do have a responsibility to make this money available,” he said.

The aid to Nicaragua, linked by Bush to a $500-million request for Panama, remains bogged down on Capitol Hill despite urgent appeals by Bush. Lawmakers have questioned the amounts and intended uses of the aid, which come at a time of mounting competition for foreign aid dollars from the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe and other countries.