
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990                   TAG: 9003081304
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JINOTEGA, NICARAGUA                                 LENGTH: Medium

SANDINISTAS ARM CIVILIANS IN PROVINCES/ GROUP FEARS RETURN OF SEIZED LAND TO

Sandinista leaders say they'll hand over the government on April 25, but their local forces don't appear ready to hand over their guns.

The army, a party organ, is delivering truckloads of assault rifles to civilians in Jinotega and Matagalpa provinces who live in the poor neighborhoods the leftist Sandinistas regard as their "social base."

"All the barrios have guns. They are all defending their land," said Francisca Castileblanco, a 52-year-old tortilla vendor, showing off her new AK-47.

High-ranking Sandinista officials in Jinotega and Matagalpa at first denied civilians were being armed.

When confronted with evidence, the officials asserted they were creating a self-defense network to fend off possible attacks by Contra forces that the Sandinistas have been battling for years.

But they also acknowledged that guns are going to people living on land confiscated after the 1979 revolution, areas the party regards as its grass roots.

The Sandinistas have said they will "defend the conquests of the revolution," including opposing any efforts to return land to previous owners and possibly other aspects of the conservative economic policies of the new government of President-elect Violeta Barrios de Chamorro.

Officials of the United National Opposition say they won't dislodge peasants from land that is being worked, even if it was expropriated under Sandinista rule.

International observers, diplomats and opposition officials are worried about the large-scale distribution of weapons at a time when tensions are so high.

Officials of the United National Opposition, the conservative coalition that defeated the Sandinistas in the Feb. 24 elections, say they have reports of arms being distributed in several other provinces and that the issue is on the agenda for transition negotiations between the Sandinistas and UNO.

Property is a critical issue in the transition of power. UNO policy is to privatize as much as possible of the state-run economy without evicting people from confiscated lands. But Sandinista campaign rhetoric and the party-controlled media have spread fear and doubt among the poor.

by CNB