U.S. to Use Leftover Funds to Assist Resettlement of Contras in Nicaragua

The Bush Administration plans to begin paying for reintegrating the Contras into Nicaraguan society by spending $3.6 million that remains from an appropriation once intended to maintain the rebel army, the White House announced Monday.

Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater described the step as a “stopgap measure” that will not be enough to complete the repatriation of an estimated 28,000 Contras and their families, most of them now living in rebel encampments in Honduras.

But he said the makeshift appropriation became necessary when Congress adjourned for the Easter-Passover recess without acting on the Administration’s emergency aid package for Panama and Nicaragua. That package includes $30 million to relocate the Contras.

Fitzwater said that about $3.6 million was left from the $47 million that Congress appropriated last year to buy uniforms, food and other non-lethal supplies to keep the Contras together while waiting to find out if Nicaragua’s Sandinista government would keep its promise of free and fair elections.

“This isn’t going to deal with the whole problem,” Fitzwater said. “But, hopefully, it will get us through until we get the other bill passed.”

U.S.-backed President-elect Violeta Barrios de Chamorro and the lame duck Sandinista government have been negotiating over terms for demobilizing and repatriating the Contras ever since Chamorro’s upset victory in a Feb. 25 election.

The repatriation process is to be overseen by observer teams established jointly by the United Nations and the Organization of American States. State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said that both the OAS and the U.N. “have been informed of our intention to move quickly” to provide the emergency funds.

Fitzwater said the Administration will renew its request for the full amount of the aid package as soon as lawmakers return to Washington.