Contadora: peace process in Central America.

On its first anniversary in January 1984, the peace effort gained new momentum. Meeting in Panama City, the Contadora Group and the Foreign Ministers of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua adopted specific measures designed to fulfil commitments made earlier in the year in an effort to restore harmony and stability in Central america. It was the twelfth meeting of the Contadora Group and the fifth held jointly with the Central American Foreign Ministers.

The measures called for include reduction of military forces in the region, withdrawal of foreign advisers, ending of foreign military interference and establishment of machinery to facilitate dialogue between countries of the region and to ensure fair and free elections.

Over the past year, the efforts of the Contadora Group have received widespread endorsement. The Security Council, the General Assembly, the President of the General Assembly and the Secretary-General have expressed their support, as have the countries of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Organization of American States (OAS). Leaders including Cuban Premier Fidel Castro and United States President Ronald Reagan have spoken in favour of the Contadora process.

"The question of Central America should be resolved within the context of the region and by peaceful means through negotiations", Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar affirmed at his year-end press conference on 21 December 1983. "And I think we should give the most honest--I repeat, the most honest--support to the Contadora effort."

The General Assembly, in resolution 38/10 adopted on 11 November without a vote, expressed its "firmest support for the efforts of the Contadora Group" and urged States of the region and outside to refrain from military operations which might hamper the negotiations the Group was undertaking with the agreement of the Governments of Central America. The Assembly welcomed the Cancun Declaration signed by the Contadora Presidents in July and the "Document of Objectives" endorsed by the Governments of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua in October as the basis for the start of negotiations to ensure harmonious co-existence in Central America.

Last May, the Security Council, in resolution 530 (1983), which reaffired the right of Nicaragua and all other countries of Central America to live in peace and security, free from outside interference, urged the Contadora Group to "spare no effort to find solutions to the problem of the region".

"The resolution was adopted following the Council's debate on a Nicaraguan complaint of invasion by "Somozist forces operating out of Honduras and financed, trained and supported by the present United States Administration".)

Following is a brief history of the Contadora initiative. Contadora Declaration

"At our first meeting", the four Foreign Ministers of the Contadora Group later reported to the OAS (document A/38/599), "we emphasized the need to strengthen the Latin American dialogue as an effective way of dealing with the political, economic and social problems that are jeopardizing peace, democracy, stability and development of the peoples of the hemisphere".

In the Contadora Declaration (document A/38/68) issued by the Group after that first meeting (8-9 January 1983), they made an "urgent appeal" to the countries of Central America to "engage in dialogue and negotiation so as to reduce tension and lay the foundations for a permanent atmosphere of peaceful co-existence and mutual respect among States". Expressing their "deep concern about direct or indirect foreign interference in the conflicts of Central America", the Ministers agreed on the need to eliminate "the external factors intensifying those conflicts" and called on all States to refrain from actions which might aggravate the situation.

After reviewing "the various peace initiatives and their effects", the Group said, they analyzed possible new actions to bring peace to the region. In that regard, they emphasized the importance of having other countries from the Latin American community join in those efforts.

Their appeal was welcomed by the Co-ordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Countries at its 1983 extraordinary Ministerial session held in Managua, Nicaragua (10-14 January) to evaluate the situation in Latin America and the Caribbean (document A/38/106) and later by the Seventh Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries at New Delhi (7-12 March) (document A/38/132).

A visit by the Contadora Group a the capitals of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala from 12 to 13 April 1983 set the stage for the first joint meeting with the Foreign Ministers of those countries, held in Panama City (20-21 April). In an information bulletin following that meeting (document A/38/164-S/15727), the Contadora countries reported that "for the first time in the course of the present crisis, the Central American Ministers for Foreign Affairs had joined in a common effort to establish a dialogue".

Joint meetings in May and July 1983, along with the April meeting, "enabled us to make some progress", the Contadora Group reported (document A/38/599) "in defining an agenda covering matters of concern to each Central American country" and to consider procedures, approaches and possible ways of solving specific issues. "At all of them", said the Group, "the central objective was to create a climate of confidence for initiating substantive negotiations on each of the issues in dispute".

During that period, the four Contadora countries, meeting on their own in Panama City (11-12 May), discussed a request made of the OAS by Costa Rica, which has no army, to establish what Costa Rica called a "peace force, capable of effectively monitoring the area of Costa Rica bordering on Nicaragua".

The Contadora Foreign Ministers, recalling that the Group's "original and

essential purpose" was to "fulfil a diplomatic role designed to seek the settlement of conflicts through political means" (document A/38/234), decided to send an observer commission to study the situation and submit recommendations. The commission's mandate was confirmed at the second joint meeting of the Central American Foreign Ministers and Contadora Group (28-30 May). It was decided then that the commission would continue to act as an advisory group on all matters relating to solution of border problems. Cancun Declaration

The Contadora initiative received new impetus--and concrete proposals for peace in Central America--from a meeting of the Presidents of Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela at Cancun, Mexico on 17 July 1983.

The Heads of State had decided to meet, they said, "in view of the worsening of the conflicts in Central America, the rapid deterioration of the regional situation, the escalation of violence, the progressive increase in tensions, border incidents and the threat of an outbreak of hostilities that could become widespread" (document A/38/599).

The Cancun Declaration (document A/38/303-S/15877) drawn up by the Presidents outlined a general programme to be proposed to the countries of Central America that would lead, region-wide, to:

* Effective control of the arms race;

* an end to arms traffic;

* the elimination of foreign advisers;

* the creation of demilitarized zones;

* the prohibition of the use of the territory of State to destabilize others;

* prohibition of other forms of interference in the internal affairs of countries of the region.

Implementation of the programme, as envisaged in the Declaration, would require a series of political commitments. Among them would be commitments to end "all prevailing situations of belligerency" and "to promote a climate of detente and confidence in the area by avoiding statements and other actions that jeopardize the essential climate of political confidence required".

The Contadora Presidents also appealed to the hief executives of the Central American countries, Cuba and the United States, and the Secretaries-General of the United Nations and the OAS for support for their peace-making efforts. Document of Objectives

The impetus of the Cancun Declaration carried th peace process forward to the fourth joint meeting of the Central American Foreign Ministers and the Contadora Group, also in Panama (7-9 September). From that meeting emerged the Document of Objectives, containing 21 basic points for peace in Central America (document S/16041). It defined the specific areas of negotiation and the terms of reference for formulating the legal instruments and machinery essential to ensure harmonious co-existence in the region.

Among the objectives set out in the Document are those in which the countries of Central America declare their intention to:

* promote detente and end conflict in the region;

* ensure respect for human rights;

* adopt measures conducive to the establishment of democratic, representative and pluralistic systems;

* promote national reconciliation;

* create political conditions to ensure the international security, integrity and sovereignty of the States of the region;

* stop the arms race in the area and begin negotiations for eductions of weapon stocks and troops;

* prevent the installation of foreign military bases or any other type of foreign military interference;

* reduce the presence of military advisers and other foreign elements involved in military and security activities, with a view to their elimination;

* prevent arms traffic;

* prevent use of their territories for destabilizing other Central American Governments;

* undertake economic and social development programmes. Reports of Secretary-General

The Secretary-General, in transmitting the Document of Objectives to the Security Council, noted that the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Mexico had pointed out that it was a "single consensus text ... which contains the principles on which eventual slution of the Central American problems will have to be based". The Secretary-General said that in his conversation with the Mexican Foreign Minister, he had emphasized that "any attempt at a solution should take into account the profound economic and social imbalances with which the Central American peoples have always struggled".

The Secretary-General said there had been frequent accusations and counter-accusations of foreign interference in the region and complaints of numerous border incidents as well as incursions by sea and by air, causing deplorable loss of life and material damage. In the view of some Governments, military and naval manoeuvres in progress added to tensions in the region. "It has also been pointed out that the presence of military advisers and training centres, the traffic in arms and the activities of armed groups, and the unprecedented build-up of arms and of military and paramilitary forces constitute further factors of tensions."

"The Governments of Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela are motivated by an earnest desire to find solutions adapted to the realities of the region, without any intrusion derived from the East-West conflict", Mr. Perez de Cuellar said. "That is why they have the manifest support of the international community as a whole."

The Security Council, in resolution 530 (1983), asked the Secretary-General to report periodically on the contadora effort. In a report issued on 9 December, he noted that the "pace of the efforts of the Contadora Group is accelerating" (document S/16208). He also reported "perceptible movement in the position of the Government of Nicaragua", consisting mainly of proposals submitted within the framework of the Contadora effort and measures which, "notwithstanding their domestic nature, take cognizance of certain requirements of the other countries of the area".

None the less, the Secretary-General warned, the situation in Central America continued to be "exceedingly complex and unstable", and "any one of the multiple factors which account for its dangerous character" could aggravate it again from one moment to the next. Specific Measures

The "Measures to be taken to fulfil the commitments entered into in the Document of Objectives" (document A/39/71-S/16262), adopted at the fifth joint meeting of the Central American Foreign Ministers and the Contadora Group, (Panama 7-8 January) are the most concrete step to date in the Contadora process. those measures relate to questions of regional security, political matters and co-operation in the economic and social spheres.

Security questions: Steps to be taken by the Central American States regarding security include an inventory by each country of its military installations, weapons and troops, with a view to developing guidelines for reductions and ceilings to achieve a "reasonable balance of forces in the region". Other measures concern establishing a timetable for withdrawal of foreign advisers and other outside elements, elimination of support or toleration of "irregular groups or forces engaged in destabilizing Central American Governments"; stopping illegal arms traffic; and establishing "mechanisms of direct communication" to avert incidents between States.

Political matters: "The promotion of national reconciliation" and "establishment of machinery to facilitate dialogue between the countries of the region" are key measures set out in the political area. Others concern machinery to ensure free and fair elections, including guarantees for participation of political parties which represent the different currents of opinion.

Economic and social questions: Agreed measures include encouragement of intraregional trade and joint investment projects, strengthening of programmes of assistance to Central American refugees and the extension of full co-operation to the Central American Integration Bank, the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA), the Committee for Action in Support of the Economic and Social Development of Central America (CADESCA) and the General Treaty on Central American Integration (SIECA).

The Foreign Ministers also decided to establish three working commissions to prepare studies, legal drafts and recommendations on those questions and make proposals for verifying and supervising implementation of the measures agreed on. Representatives of the Governments of Central America will comprise the commissions, which will be convened by the Contadora Group and will carry out their tasks within the framework of the "Document of Objectives".

The working commissions were officially inaugurated on 31 January. Their recommendations are to be submitted to a Joint Meeting of the Foreign Ministers "not later than 30 April" (document A/39/95-S/16304).

At its most recent meeting (29-28 February), the Contadora Group reiterated its resolve to search for a stable and lasting peace in Central America. But it acknowledged that if that objective was to be obtained, the measures agreed on at the joint meeting in January had to be "scrupulously carried out" (document A/39/126-S/16394).

The Ministers noted with interest advances made with respect to elections in various countries of the area and highlighted the importance of making use of democratic processes as a means of bringing about domestic reconciliation in the various countries and detente in the region.

They also emphasized the growing international co-operation in tackling the serious social and economic problems "at the root of the crisis in Central america". The Group considered proposals made towards that end by the International LAbour Organisation, the Pan American Health Organization and CADESCA. The Foreign Ministers expressed satisfaction at the convention of the CADESCA's first meeting, scheduled for 1-6 March 1984 in Mexico City, calling that body "a necessary instrument for the co-ordination of economic and social co-operation in the Central American area.