EXODUS OF 4,500 INDIANS ORCHESTRATED BY 'CONTRAS'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100570002-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 14, 2011
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: April 7, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/14: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0100570002-0 STAT
ARTICLE APPEARED I
ONPASF4- 04
7 April 1986
Exodus of 4,500 Indians
orchestrated by `contras'
By James Bock
Sun Staff Correspondent
AUKA. Honduras - Anti-Sandt-
nista rebels orchestrated an evacua-
tion of almost 4,500 Miskito Indians
from Nicaragua in the past two
weeks after clashes with govern-
ment troops along the Coco River.
refugees and relief workers said.
Leaders of the Kisan movement,
a Miskito Indian branch of the "con-
tra" rebels trying to overthrow Nica-
ragua's Sandinista government.
may have delayed the arrival of refu-
gees at U.N. reception areas to coin-
cide with a planned U.S. Embassy-
sponsored trip for reporters to the
remote border zone in northeastern
Honduras, the sources said.
The trip, scheduled for last
Thursday, was called off because of
bad flying conditions.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman in
Tegucigalpa denied that the U.S. had
any contact with Kisan. The spokes-
man, Michael O'Brien, suggested
that muddy trails had slowed the ref-
tgees. "The Indians move at their
own pace." he said.
Kisan's presence in the area,
however. was open. The president of
the rebels' non-military Council of
Elders granted an interview at the
reception area run by the United Na-
tions in Auka, nine miles from the
Nicaraguan border.
.' And reporters leaving Auka at
Might, escorted by a Honduran army
.*rgeant, made a wrong turn that
led directly into a Kisan camp within
'15 miles of Nicaragua. The contras
declined to be interviewed, saying
they were holding a religious service.
"You weren't supposed to see
tpts," the Honduran sergeant said.
onduras officially denies the pres-
nnce of contras on its soil.
. One refugee, Guadalupe Taylor, a
24-year-old peasant from Saklin,
-Cold reporters he crossed the Coco
"River, which forms the Nicaragua-
Bonduras border, when fighting
broke out early March 25 but re-
turned to Nicaragua 12 hours later.
"Then two commanders from Kls-
s came and said it was better to go
back to the other side," he said. The
refugees said two members of the
Council of Elders walked the Nicara-
guan shore telling Miskitos to go to
Honduras.
The flight of the Coco River
Miskitos, who have long been at
odds with the Sandinistas, is politi-
cally sensitive now, with a sched-
uled vote by the U.S. Congress next
week on a $100 million package of
aid to the contras.
Kisan leaders are portraying the
fighting along the Coco and the refu-
gees' flight to Honduras as the latest
in a series of Sandinista abuses of
Miskito rights.
According to refugees and relief
workers, tension had been building
for several months along the Coco.
The tension came to a head March
25, when fighting broke out between
Sandinista troops and Kisan guerril-
las in the Nicaraguan town of Bil-
wascarma.
Residents forded the Coco to seek
sanctuary, leaving behind a bumper
bean crop due for harvest this
month.
U.N. camps have taken in 3.240
refugees, and another 1,200 were
expected at this village and nearby
Srumlaya, Arturo Mengotti. coordi-
nator of U.N. refugee programs on
the Honduran Mosquito Coast, said
yesterday.
The new arrivals brought to
18,000 the number of Nicaraguan
Miskitos living under U.N. auspices
in Honduras. Mr. Mengotti said an-
other 6,000 to 8.000 lived on their
own near the border. More than
100,000 Miskitos remain in Nicara-
gua.
rom interviews with relief work-
ers, Kisan officials and a score of
refugees a story of the Miskito evac-
uation emerged:
Beginning in mid-1985, about
10,000 Miskitos were allowed to
foUick0NLiYr Coco River
homes from resettlement camps in
the Nicaraguan interior, where they
had lived for almost five years.
The Sandinistas had started talks
with Miskito representatives. Hopes
were high that the border area,
which had been evacuated because
of guerrilla attacks, could be repopu-
lated.
By September, Kisan, a reconsti-
tuted rebel group composed of
Miskitos who rejected negotiating
with the Sandinistas, was patrolling
the Coco area.
The rebels readily found sympa-
thizers to provide them food.
Miskitos along the Coco are embit-
tered by Sandinista destruction of
their homes, animals and crops dur-
ing offensives against Indian rebels
in 1981 and their years in the reset-
tlement camps.
The Miskito-Sandinista conflict is
part of a cultural confrontation that
pits the Indians against the Hispanic
majority. Many Miskitos, devout
members of the Moravian church.
also think the Marxist Sandinista
leaders are godless.
Early this year, Fausto Vargas.
president of Kisan's Council of
Elders, clandestinely toured river vil-
lages. He urged residents to bring in
a big harvest to feed the Miskito
fighters.
Tensions rose. Kisan reportedly
destroyed a bridge and ambushed a
Sandinista patrol. Food supplies
tightened, and the government mili-
tary presence increased. Meanwhile.
Miskitos started seeking refuge at
U.N. camps in Honduras. about 100
a week beginning in mid-December.
Relief officials, hearing the refu-
gees' stories of tension and hard-
ships. made contingency plans for a
large influx of Miskitos in May, after
the harvest and before the rains,
when the river is low and easy to
ford.
With the Easter week fighting,
however, Miskitos poured across the
river, catching relief officials by sur-
prise. Many refugees only heard the
sounds of combat. Others reported
seeing several hundred Sandinista
troops.
Varying r rts of casualties
could not be confirmed. Relief work-
ers said they had received no
wounded. One source with access to
intelligence reports said 13 wounded
guerrillas were evacuat to an un-
disclosed hospital.
Once on the Honduran soil, the
Miskito refugees were given political
talks by the Council of Elders. It was
not until almost a week after the
fighting that refugees began to arrive
in large numbers at U.N. camps only
a few miles from the Coco River.
About 700 residents of upstream
villages, where no fighting was re-
ported, descended on one U.N. cen-
ter. Nurses at three reception points
said the health of the refugees was
generally good.
Officials expect more Miskito ref-
ugees from the Coco, where at least
5,000 remain.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/14: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0100570002-0