U.S. POLICY GOES ON TRIAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200740034-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 25, 2010
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: September 30, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200740034-4
r "T! i E 'PEAS D )
TIME
30 September 1985
Law
Advocates Chayes, left, and Reichler outside the court's headquarters In the Hague
U.S. Policy Goes on Trial
At the World Court, two Americans make Nicaragua 's case
l n the ornate chamber of the Interna-
tional Court of Justice in the Hague last
week, lawyers for Nicaragua charged the
U.S. with attempting to overthrow the
Sandinista government, using the contra
rebels as one of its tools. The lawyers
made their case in the World Court before
an empty row of leather chairs reserved
for the American side. The U.S. is boy-
cotting the proceeding: last year the
Reagan Administration announced that
while it would continue to recognize the
court's jurisdiction generally, it would not
do so for two years in matters involving
events in Central America.
Despite Washington's absence. there
were in fact some Americans in the court-
room. Harvard Law Professor Abram
Chayes. 63, formerly the chief State De-
partment legal adviser, was serving on the
Sandinista courtroom team, which had
been assembled by another American,
Paul Reichler, 38. Once a student of
Chayes. Reichler has handled many legal
problems for the Sandinistas.
While American lawyers often repre-
sent other nations in U.S. or foreign
courts, it is rare for them to do so in an in-
ternational dispute in which the U.S. is
the defendant. "One does not become in-
volved in a suit against one's own country
lightly." says Reichler. "If my situation is
unique, so are the circumstances in this
case." American policy toward Nicara-
gua, he maintains, "is a violation of the
most sacred principles that the U.S.
stands for: respect for law and the peace-
ful resolution of disputes."
When the Sandinistas decided last
year to take their case to the World Court,
Reichler's first choice for his legal team
was Chayes. "I thought about it for a long
time," says Chayes, who during the 1962
Cuban missile crisis helped the State De-
partment work out legal arguments sup-
porting the blockade of Cuba. Described
by colleagues as brilliant and impas-
sioned. Chayes was drawn to the case
partly by the magnitude of the questions it
raises. "We are dealing here with the fun-
damental norms of international law," he
explains. -It's not pettifoggery."
In seven days of testimony, during
which five witnesses were called, the Nic-
araguan legal team, which also includes a
Briton, a Frenchman, a Nicaraguan at-
torney and Managua's Ambassador to the
Netherlands, attempted to prove that the
contras were a creation of the U.S. and
would wither away without Washington's
funding. In an affidavit. former Contra
Leader Edgar Chamorro claimed that the
rebels were practicing terrorism aaatnst
civilian populations as a conscious policy.
He alleged that the political and military
activities of the rebel Nicaraguan Demo-
cratic Force, which he left last year, "were
directed and controlled by the CIA." Cha-
morro said that agents hired by the CIA
would carry out acts of sabotage, includ-
ing the mining of Nicaraguan harbors
and the bombing of oil facilities, then di-
rect his group to claim the responsibility.
The Reagan Administration has jus-
tifieaits support or t e contras in
part as a way to interdict the flow of Nic-
raguan arms tote va or rebels.
ut one witness, former CIA Analyst
yid MacMichael, said there had been
v h shipments since
he spring of 1981, some six months be-
fore the be innin of U.S. support for
the contras. On the day that MacMichael
started his testimony, the U.S. State
Department issued a position paper de-
tailing its charge that Nicaragua had
shipped arms to rebels in El Salvador.
Actually, there was a third important
American in the courtroom: World Court
Judge Stephen Schwebel. an international
awyer who once worked under Chaves at
the State Department. Schwebel, the only
judge to question Nicaragua's witnesses
in depth, expressed ske ticism at some of
their assertions. In a lengthy debate with
MacMichael, for example, Schwebel got
the former CIA analyst to concede that it
was "plausible" that Cuban arms had
been channeled through Nicaragua to El
Salvador. In answering a concluding
question as to w et er ac is gel-be-
lieved that "it could beta cen as-lact"
that the Nicaraguans supplied arms to
the Salvadoran insurgency in late l 0
and early 1981, MacMichael complained
that Schwebel was "drawing this from me
like a nail out of a block of wood," but
admitted. "Yes that is my opinion."
The court is expected to deliver its
opinion before the end of the year. Nica-
raguan Ambassador to the Hague Carlos
Arguello says he expects the decision to
be "a clear declaration that the U.S. has
violated international law." The U.S.
would almost certainly ignore such a rul-
ing, which could also include the imposi-
tion of monetary damages. Despite the
frustrations of shadowboxing with absent
U.S. advocates, Chayes believes that the
court's decision will affect the debate
among Americans on Washington's ac-
tions in Central America. "If its policy is
pronounced in violation of international
law," he says, "it would be the first time
such judgment has been rendered on the
U.S." In a way, argues Chayes, he is do-
ing the same thing in this case that he did
at the State Department: "trying to keep
the U.S. on the right side of international
law." -ByRkhrdLacayo. Reported byJoe/N
Atthiger/Boston aW &A Pt H s/fire Hasw
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200740034-4