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

DATE: SATURDAY, April 21, 1990                   TAG: 9004210073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DORALISA PILARTE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: MANAGUA, NICARAGUA                                LENGTH: Medium

ACCORD GIVES CHAMORRO TIME

The cease-fire in Nicaragua's 9-year-old civil war and an agreement to dismantle the rebel army have bought time for the incoming U.S.-backed government to show it can solve the country's problems. A pacified Nicaragua is essential to President-elect Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, whose inauguration Wednesday will end a decade of leftist Sandinista rule. Chamorro's promises of reviving the moribund economy were a key reason for her electoral rout Feb. 25 of President Daniel Ortega's Sandinistas.

"I'm very happy," Chamorro said after the agreements were signed Thursday, "because we don't want war anymore, we want peace and reconciliation."

The history of peace and cease-fire pacts in Central America is not encouraging, but the agreements appear to have a better chance than most of succeeding.

For one thing, the negotiations involved one of the Contra's senior field leaders, Oscar Sovalbarro. Most previous agreements have been about the Contras without actually involving them, giving them no stake in compliance.

The Sandinistas appear to have decided to play the part of a democratic opposition after their electoral defeat; they are moving to change from a narrowly defined revolutionary party to a broader political movement.

Sandinista army Gen. Humberto Ortega, defense minister and brother of the president, said he was satisfied with what he called an agreement reached "in a profound, serious way, with a great spirit of responsibility."

But nine years of civil war and 30,000 deaths in a country of 3 million have left a legacy of suspicion. Guns have always meant power in Central America, where democracy has no tradition, and neither side wants to be the first to put down its weapons.

On Thursday, President Ortega said the agreements brought the nation "much closer to peace," but the pacts still had to be carried out.

"The war will have disappeared on the moment that all the Contras have disarmed," he said.

For its part, the Sandinista Party controls not just the army but also cooperative farms, unions and other peasant and worker organizations that have weapons. Cadres at neighborhood party headquarters also are armed.

The Sandinistas fear the Contras would become a right-wing military force and help overturn reforms in health, education and land distribution; the Contras fear continued Sandinista control of the army would lead to an overthrow of Chamorro.

Both sides fear a wave of vendettas if families seek the return of seized farms or revenge for those slain in the fighting.

An additional problem is finding jobs for demobilized fighters: the Contras number about 9,000 and the Sandinista army is much larger, although it has suffered from desertion.

The cease-fire took effect Thursday and the Contras agreed to dismantle by June 10, 6 1/2 weeks after Chamorro takes office. That represented a concession by the Contras, who had refused to even consider talking about disarming until Chamorro took power.

Chamorro's coalition gained the most from Thursday's agreement, even if it only postpones the issues of disarming and demobilizing.

The agreements give the new government some - not much, but some - political breathing space. If it can show that it is in control, those who are dissatisfied may find themselves isolated and the disarmament agreements will have a better chance of sticking and bringing peace, at last, to Nicaragua.

by CNB