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

DATE: MONDAY, April 23, 1990                   TAG: 9004230210
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AMID DISTRUST, CAN NICARAGUA DISARM?

VIOLETA CHAMORRO is to be inaugurated as Nicaragua's new president on Wednesday. That seems pretty sure. The same day, the Contra rebels - under an accord reached last week - are to begin laying down their arms and to disband by June 10. That is much less sure.

There has been much huffing and puffing in Sandinista circles about the need to break up the Contras before power can be turned over to Chamorro, elected in an upset Feb. 25. But the existing government appears resigned to surrendering the top offices. It has said it will not surrender the struggle for social justice, reform, etc., etc. Nor, one may be certain, will it give up the idea of returning to power one day.

Meantime, the Sandinistas for now retain effective control of the bureaucracy and the army. That is what concerns the Contras.

Some have already turned in their arms in Honduras and seen them cut up with blowtorches by a United Nations force. But thousands more rebels still operate in small units within Nicaragua, fighting skirmishes with Sandinistas. A Washington Post article quotes a 22-year-old Contra patrol leader called Webster as saying: "If I left my arms here and went home tomorrow, the Sandinistas would find me and kill me because they would still have arms, and I wouldn't."

Mutual mistrust runs both broad and deep on each side. Demographically, Nicaragua is a young nation - only 4 percent of its population is 60 or more years old - and as adults, this civil war is all that many Nicaraguans have known. "Webster," 22, has been a Contra for eight years. Young dogs, too, can find it difficult to learn new tricks.

Probably not much trust can be put in either the Sandinistas or the rebels. Democracy is only a word to them. The country lacks (1) experience with this Mutual mistrust runs both broad and deep on each side. Demographically, Nicaragua is a young nation . . . and as adults, this civil war is all that many Nicaraguans have known. difficult form of government and (2) the social compact needed to make it work. Here in the United States, we have had some first-hand acquaintance with the lasting and deep-seated animosities that civil war engenders. More than a century after the Late Unpleasantness, "Forget, hell!" is a joke in the old Confederate states. It is bitter reality in nations such as Nicaragua.

The Contras were U.S. surrogates in that Central American conflict. Our side "won" - i.e., a free election was held and the Sandinistas defeated. Having fomented war that left 30,000 Nicaraguans dead, we have a large responsibility to that prostrate country, as well as an interest in the success of its foray into democracy. What comes now will be much more difficult than paying others to kill for us.

by CNB