Contra-Sandinista Peace Talks Stalled : 2 Sides End Second Round Divided on How to Carry Out Accord

Sandinista and Contra leaders ended a second round of high-level talks here Saturday without agreement on how to carry out the preliminary peace accord they signed five weeks ago.

The three days of negotiations, described by both sides as tense, failed even to set a time and place for a new meeting before their truce expires at the end of May.

The talks followed a power struggle within the U.S.-backed insurgency that appeared to solidify Enrique Bermudez’s command of the main Contra army. Bermudez sent his top four staff aides here to join the Miami-based Contra civilian directorate led by Adolfo Calero, who had tried to oust him for criticizing the peace accord.

“We are convinced that the hard line expressed by Enrique Bermudez did not permit these talks to advance as we had hoped,” Gen. Humberto Ortega, the Sandinista defense minister, told reporters.

Agreement on 15 Points

Ortega, the chief government negotiator, said the Contra delegation left Managua in agreement with 15 of the 32 points in a government proposal that served as a basis for negotiations. But he said that those points are “not substantial” and that most had been settled in earlier talks on technical military issues.

“As we got down to the most fundamental issues, the tensions rose,” Ortega said.

“If we can work next time in a constructive spirit, we hope we can advance,” he added, “but the issues remaining will take time.”

The talks grew out of an accord signed March 23 at the Nicaraguan border post of Sapoa. It called for a two-month cease-fire to allow time to negotiate a permanent settlement of the six-year conflict. But the follow-up negotiations, which opened with a fruitless round here April 15-18, have been deadlocked by a basic dispute over how to proceed.

Contra leaders are seeking an initial technical agreement on the operation of seven cease-fire zones where their forces are to gather and receive non-lethal supplies from the United States. Such an accord would allow them to bring demands for sweeping political changes to a “national dialogue” between the leftist government and opposition parties.

The 15 points of the Sandinista proposal accepted so far by the Contras deal exclusively with rules for the cease-fire zones.

In an effort to advance toward a technical accord, Contra leaders agreed here to drop demands that their forces receive military aid, that Sandinista civilian authorities withdraw from the zones and that the government forgo its Soviet Bloc military aid.

But the government continued to insist on an armistice that would delay supplies for rebels and talks on political reform until Contra leaders agree to a timetable for having their troops disarm and return to civilian life.

‘Calendar’ of Compliance

The rebels again rejected this formula. They insisted on using the national dialogue to extract pledges from the Sandinista party to release its grip on the army and the state, then to link disarmament to a “calendar” of Sandinista compliance with those pledges.

“The problem is that while we are giving peace a chance, the Sandinistas are afraid to give democracy a chance because democracy carries the risk of (their) losing power,” said Azucena Ferrey, a Contra director.

But the Sandinistas are suspicious of the Contras’ motives. They say that Bermudez wants to use the cease-fire to rest and resupply his troops so he can continue the war.

With the truce due to expire May 30, the government offered a one-month extension, but the Contras refused to discuss it. The Contras also turned down a government offer to allow the rebels, who are running out of food, to receive U.S. supplies through the International Red Cross until May 30.

They also declined to sign a proposed communique recognizing what little progress there has been toward agreement on the government proposal.

“There are points of coincidence, but we haven’t reached any agreement,” Calero told reporters.

Several Sandinista negotiators said that when they asked how the Contras wanted to make Nicaragua more democratic, the rebels declined to present a list of demands.

“The hard line of the Contras is in ascendancy,” said Paul S. Reichler, an American legal adviser to the Sandinista delegation. “Their negotiators did not want to appear to Bermudez that they are interested in a peace agreement.”

The rebels also balked at a government proposal to resume the talks in Managua in mid-May, saying they would reply next week. They said they refused to return to the capital unless the government stops confining them to the hotel where the negotiations are held.

“We didn’t feel right being imprisoned in a hotel room while the Sandinista police were beating our supporters across town,” said rebel negotiator Alfredo Cesar.

At least 60 anti-government protesters were arrested Friday as they tried to gather at a union hall in support of 38 striking construction workers who were fasting inside. Police declared the rally illegal.

Complaints Over Coverage

Interior Minister Tomas Borge summoned the owner of Radio Corporacion to his home to complain about the opposition station’s live interviews with labor protesters and Contra leaders.

Borge was in charge of censorship until the government lifted press restrictions in January.

The broadcaster, Jose Castillo Osejo, claimed that Borge accused him of “provoking chaos and inciting violence,” then got “very upset,” ordered two aides to leave the room and started punching him and throwing sofa cushions. Witnesses said Castillo left bleeding from the lower lip and the forehead.