The Guardian of Liberty - Nemzetőr, 1987 (10. évfolyam, 2-6. szám)

1987-03-01 / 2. szám

BI-MONTH L Y B 20435 V THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY (NEMZETŐR) Vol. 2 XXXI MARCH-APRIL, 1987 "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion" Article 18 Universal Declaration of Human Rights Sandinistas Accused of Scorched-Earth Tactics N icaragua’s Sandinist government is systemati­cally bombing villages thought to be a source of food for the Contra guerrillas, according to a report published by the Puebla Institute, an independent Catholic laymen’s human rights orga­nisation. “The practice of killing or driving out of the region all those whose farms are viewed as a potential source of food to guerrillas is called ’draining the sea', and represents the type of counter-insrugency warfare that has been con­demned elsewhere in the world“, the report said. “The Sandinistas made no distinction between civilians and combatants as targets, but rather fired indiscriminately on men, women and children.” One of the witnesses of these scorched-earth tactics, Teofilo Garcia Garcia, said: “There was no warning; they only wanted to kill us. If they warned us, we would have fled before. We left quickly, but we saw people who were killed in the river, including a 70-year-old man I recognised named Gilberto.” Eight years after a revolution which promised an end to the abuses of the former right-wing Somoza regime, the Sandinistas are resorting to an increasing number of human rights violations in their drive towards totalitarian rule. Ironically, some of the human rights organisa­tions which report on the Sandinist violations originated during the Samoza dictatorship. In 1978, for example, the founder of the Permanent j Commission for Human Rights (CPDH), José Esteban Gonzalez, saved the life of the current : Interior Minister, Tomas Borge, when he — even then known as a Marxist — was in prison. Gonza­lez effected his emigration to Cuba. i In the early 1980s, Gonzalez himself was im­prisoned and then made to leave his homeland: the Nicaragua of the Sandinistas could have no further need of the independent and thus dis­comforting human rights champion. Still in exile, G o n za le z c o n tin u e s to c o lle c t in fo rm a tio n , a n d re p o rts a b o u t w h a t is h a p p e n in g in N ic a ra g u a today. I n a report issued last December, the CPDH names some of the victims of Sandinist repression. It cites the case of Diego Antonio Lainez Espinoza, a 22-year-old fisherman from the Chinandega district who was arrested on June 18, 1986, whilst fishing. He was put in a completely dark cell in the new Leon State Security prison, the Luis Delga­dillo Operations Centre, and was fed once every five days. At night he was interrogated about a purported trip of his to El Salvador. When he denied going there, he was beaten and then forced to stand with a rope round his nedc for 24 hours. On October 28 he was made to sign a blank sheet of paper while a pistol was pointed at his head. Immediately afterwards he was taken to the Zara Franca prison in Managua where he is wait­ing to appear before the so-called “Tribunal Popular Antisamocista”. He is suffering from ulcers and kidney infection. Many members of the non-Sandinist trade unions (all of which opposed Samoza) have been detained, some repeatedly, for up to several months. The largest independent labour confederation, the Nica­raguan Workers’ Central (CTN), reports that since 1983 about 500 of its members, including all seven directors, have been temporarily imprisoned. Nicaragua’s other big independent labour con-federation, the Confederation of Trade Union Unity (CUS), estimates that 300 of its rank-and­­file have been jailed, most without due process. Some were freed on condition that they became government informers. Others were threatened with re-arrest if they did not drop their member­ship of independent groups. The closing of the newspaper La Prensa last June dealt a major blow to Sandinist opposition. Although the paper had been censored before 1982, its offices were still a stronghold of refuge for all non-Sandinist groups. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, José Esteban Gonzalez said: “What could not be published and what was hung on censored galleys on the door was the real valuable informa­tion of the day. Then there were the references to attacks by Sandinist hordes on regime op­ponents, on priests, politicians and unionists. There (Continued on page 2) KUBA. MEXIKO KARIBISCHES PTTm meer PAZIFISCHER OZEAN---------­HONDURAS Pto.Cal Jinotega IMatagalpa § NICARAGUA Corintol Pto. Sand ino^f ~ Managui 'Granada Bluefields: NICARAGUA­:200km=j > COSTA RIC NICARAGUA Nicaragua: President Ortega’s brother, Defense Minister Ortega, responsible for “scorched-earth" pcdicies IN THIS ISSUE Sandinistas Accused 1 Genocide of Hungarian Culture 2 Reform Planned in pre-Comm. Hungary 3 Conscientious Objector Arrested 3 Drive to Influence African Workers 4 How Communists Cheer "Restructuring” 5 Afghanistan: Refugee Flow Continues 6-7 Aden Pins Hope on New Constitution 8 Believers still Being Penalised 9 Eastern Europe 40 Years ago... 11 j Dam Could Cause Disaster 11 , Libyans Banned/Escope on Surfboards 12

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