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

DATE: FRIDAY, September 9, 1994                   TAG: 9410130021
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DOUGLAS MICHAEL MASSING
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

NICARAGUA, 1994

SINCE I spent part of the summer in Nicaragua, I've missed much of the debate over Oliver North's fitness to serve in the United States Senate. But precisely because I was there, and can compare my observations with those made on a 1985 visit when the Sandinistas were in power and North's war against them was in full swing, I feel qualified to comment on the argument that North's actions in the Iran-Contra affair, whatever their inherent moral quality, are justified by the supposed results: restoration of democracy and a free market to Nicaragua.

Unfortunately, it still bears repeating that the Sandinista government Ronald Reagan was determined to overthrow was confirmed in power in 1984 by internationally observed elections that were widely judged to be honest and fair. Neither that fact, nor the legal prohibitions and restrictions Congress passed in response to an intense, widespread grass-roots movement in this country against American intervention, could keep Reagan, Bush, North and their cronies from having their way.

Support for the Contra forces the CIA had created in 1981 continued, overtly and covertly, legally and illegally, until the toll in Nicaragua reached 30,000 dead, some 16,000 orphaned and tens of thousands more maimed or wounded - all this out of a population of only about 4 million. War-weary Nicaraguans voted the Sandinistas out of executive office while retaining them as the largest party in the legislature.

What are the fruits of this massive interference in the Nicaraguan democratic process? Are Nicaraguans better off after the elections of 1990 than they were after those of 1984?

Almost immediately on arriving in Managua, I could sense the change from my visit nine years ago. No amount of familiarity with the figures on hunger, illiteracy and social disintegration - all grimly mounting under the Chamorro government - could have prepared me for the shock of actually seeing children, some showing signs of malnutrition, hustling and begging on the streets in a way that would have been unimaginable in 1985. Nothing could have prepared me to hear the phrase "dying of hunger" uttered so often over the course of a month.

Hope, belief in the possibility of change, the active engagement of the national government in trying to improve the lives of its citizens are all palpably missing in the Managua of 1994.

The hungry and dying were invariably mentioned in a tone of resignation that nothing could, or would, be done by the government. The Health Ministry, admitting that 300,000 Nicaraguan children suffer from malnutrition, has committed itself only to study private relief efforts as a model for possible future action.

Not only is the government unprepared to deal with this crisis, it helped - along with its allies, the Contras - to create it. Health workers who survived the systematic assassination efforts of the Contras have been decimated by the government as it cuts back basic human services in the name of the "structural readjustment" demanded by the international banks. Hospitals, clinics and rural health stations close for lack of personnel, medicines and supplies.

Sandinista-supported programs for soil and water conservation and sustainable development that might have provided some buffer against the effects of this year's devastating drought now continue drastically cut back and despite the government's indifference. Agricultural credit for the small farmer has disappeared.

North's terrorists and thugs roam the Nicaraguan countryside as bandits or are scandalously being handed responsibility for local law enforcement.

This is the true legacy of Oliver North.

With the servile cooperation of the Chamorro government, economic war is being waged by the international financial institutions against the people of Nicaragua. The abolition of tariffs in the name of free trade has been disastrous, creating thousands of bankruptcies and cratering or destroying entire industries such as poultry, textile, clothing and leather.

What ``free market'' means in Nicaragua is the proclamation of the Chamorro government, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to the multinational corporations: ``Here's a new market, fellahs! Y'all come get it; it's free!''

It would take years if not decades, it would take billions of dollars, it would take charity, humility and contrition the American people have not yet shown to even begin to repair the waste and destruction perpetrated upon Nicaragua by North and his henchmen. I was ashamed to tell my friends in Managua that I could not foresee our political process ever being able to deal conscientiously with this disgraceful history.

The very least we in Virginia can do, out of self-respect as well as humanity, is refuse to elect as senator a candidate who has so clearly and consistently demonstrated his contempt for the legislative process, for democracy, for any definition of patriotism but his own, for truth, for decency, and for human life.

Douglas Michael Massing is a writer living in Blacksburg. His recent visit to Managua and the countryside of Matagalpa was sponsored by NICCA, the Nicaragua Center for Community Action.

by CNB