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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 27, 1990                   TAG: 9003270233
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MANAGUA, NICARAGUA                                LENGTH: Medium

DISAGREEMENT DEVELOPING OVER DISARMING BY CONTRAS

With the ink barely dry on a Contra promise to disband by mid-April, U.S.-backed rebels have streamed into Nicaragua and their military leader says they won't disarm until the Sandinista army does.

"We are speaking of total demobilization - that includes both ourselves and the Sandinistas," Israel Galeano, the rebel military chief, said Monday.

International observers said there appeared to be a split among the Contras over the pact signed Friday in Honduras. Rebel loyalty seemed divided between Oscar Sovalbarro, a commander who signed the agreement, and Galeano, who did not.

The Sandinistas, defeated at the polls last month, have said they won't hand over control of the army and police to the new government headed by Violeta Chamorro until the U.S.-backed rebels turn in their weapons.

There were reports of intensified fighting.

Chamorro's representatives negotiated Friday's accord, which says Contras in Honduran camps will demobilize by April 20, five days before the conservative coalition takes office.

But the agreement sets no deadline for disbanding rebels on Nicaraguan territory, now at least half the 12,000-man Contra army.

Galeano said it was unrealistic to expect immediate demobilization.

"An eight-year process cannot be decided by the dismantling of an organization in 15 days," he said.

Most of the Contra army that set up camps in Honduras after U.S. military aid ended in 1988 began returning to Nicaragua in September. As many as 4,000 were believed in Nicaragua by the Feb. 25 elections.

Sovalbarro, who negotiated the accord for the Contras, said Monday that an "insurgent military contingent of 2,000 rebel fighters" has returned since Friday and "its numbers could increase at any moment."

Contra bases across the border in Yamales, Honduras, are practically empty, according to journalists and international observers.

They "have become ghost camps. There's just a few of them left there," one international observer said on condition of anonymity.

Friday's accord also calls for an immediate cease-fire, a provision the Sandinistas say the Contras have already violated.

The Defense Ministry said that on Friday, a dozen soldiers and four rebels were killed when 100 Contras ambushed Sandinista troops. Chamorro's newspaper, La Prensa, condemned the attack as "terrorism" and insisted that the Contras disband "without fail and without pretext."

The ministry also reported a 30-minute firefight between soldiers and rebels on Sunday. It said that on the same day 100 Contras seized a truck, robbed the passengers of cash and jewelry and demanded the owner pay a $500 ransom.

by CNB