Security Council considers Nicaraguan complaint of escalating aggression.

The Security Council met on 7 September at Nicaragua's request, to examine what Nicaragua termed "a fresh escalation of aggression" against it (S/16731).

Nicaragua said four Nicaraguan schoolchildren and a construction worker had been killed in a terrorist attack. Also, a C-47 plane that had entered Nicaragua from Honduras had been shot down, resulting in the death of eight mercenaries.

The Council last considered a complaint by Nicaragua in April 1984, when the United States vetoed a draft resolution by which it would hae condemned the mining of Nicaraguan ports and called for an end to such acts (see UN Chronicle, 1984, No. 4).

Nicaragua was the only speaker at the meeting. The United States and USSR made statements in right of reply.

Javier Chamorro Mora (Nicaragua) told the Council that the death of the four children on 1 September was "particularly painful because they are part of a sad chian of similar deaths that have had to be confronted in the past four years". During that time, he said, "several thousand Nicaraguans" had been victims of terrorist attacks from abroad.

He recalled Nicaragua's complaint to the Council in April and reminded members that in May, the International Court of Justice had indicated provisional measures stating that the United states must refrain from any action blocking access to Nicaraguan ports, including the laying of mines, and must respect Nicaraguan sovereignty.

What was of concern now, he said, was the increasing involvement of United States citizens--Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) mercenaries--in the "no-longer-covert war" against Nicaragua. On 27 August, a United States C-47 aircraft that had entered Nicaragua from Honduras had been downed, resulting in the deaths of eight mercenaries, including the pilot, Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero, "an acknowledged assassin of our people". In the most recent incident, on 1 September, two United States citizens had died when a UH-500D helicopter and three push-and-pull airplanes had attacked a military school in Santa Clara.

"How does the Government of the United States justify the persecution of individuals participating in illegal military activities against Dominica and Haiti when it closes its eyes to those who do the same against Nicaragua?" he asked.

Only United States citizens closely linked to the CIA had access to the CIA infrastructure set up in Honduras for aggression against Nicaragua. "There is no operation against military or economic targets in [Nicaragua] that is not directly authorized by the United States Central Intelligence Agency", Mr. Chamorro Mora said.

He expressed concern over reports of more than 1,000 United States mercenaries in Nicaraguan territory and detailed a variety of naval and air activities, manoeuvres and exercises that he said were evidence of the United States military presence in the area. That presence had resulted in the death of close to 7,400 Nicaraguans over the past three and a half years, he added, as well as losses amounting to some 2,275 million cordobas [approximately $82.7 million.]

The statements of high-level members of the United States Administration, including President Reagan, Secretary of State Schultz and Ambassador Kirkpatrick "could clinically be classified as the result of paranoid reflexes", Mr. Chamorro Mora said. The Republican party platform, which expressed support for continued assistance to Nicaraguan "freedom fighters", painted a grim future for his country. But no one was being persecuted in Nicaragua, as the Republicans claimed.

Nicaragua would never be a threat to the security of any Central American State, much less to that of the United States. "Do not worry: we are not going to invade Colorado", said Mr. Chamorro Mora, in a reference to a recent American movie, Red Dawn. On the contrary, he said, it was the United States that constituted a threat to the security of Nicaragua. The Council must act decisively, he urged.

Speaking in reply, Jose Sorzano (United States) rejected Nicaragua's description of his country's role in the region. Coming to the Council with "baseless allegations of aggression" by the United States and neighbouring Central American countries was a Sandinista tactic to deflect attention from Nicaragua's unwillingness to co-operate in the Contadora negotiations, he said.

The United States had not sent personnel to Nicaragua, according to Mr. Sorzano, but there were Cuban and Libyan military and security advisers there, and it was "possible that some might have engaged in military activities". The presence of personnel from the Soviet bloc, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Basque and other foreign military troops are of serious concern to the United States. Also crucial to Nicaragua's subversive efforts was the participation of subversive forces from other Latin American countries, including Argentina and Chile.

It was common for both sides in the Central American conflicts to solicit aid from private American groups, he explained. It was reported that some 700 Americans were now working for the Sandinista Government. None the less, neither El Salvador nor Honduras had ever come before the Council to complain about the activities of non-governmental volunteers. "Only Nicaragua uses the Council for this purpose", Mr. Sorzano said.

The United States was not trying to overthrow the Sandinista Government. Its relations with Nicaragua had deteriorated because, instead of keeping their promises about human rights and pluralistic democracy, the Sandinistas had developed increasingly close military ties to Cuba and the Soviet Union, tightened their internal repression, supported insurgency in El Salvador and terrorism in Honduras and Costa Rica, and continued an extensive military build-up that threatened the security of their neighbours.

Richard S. Ovinnikov (USSR), also speaking in reply, called the United States' contention that it did not intend to overthrow the Government of Nicaragua "fallacious from beginning to end". The United States had been openly financing, arming and training mercenaries it was sending to Nicaraguan territory, he said.

The reason for United States intervention in Latin American countries, according to Mr. Ovinnikov, was its consistent policy of attempting to impose on those countries the system preferred in the United States. Over the years, the United States had on 82 occasions used force against 11 Latin American countries: against Mexico, 14 times; Cuba, 13; Panama, 11; Nicaragua, 10; Dominican Republic, 9; Colombia, 7; Honduras, 7; Haiti, 5; Puerto Rico, 3; Guatemala, 2; and Grenada, 1.

The United States kept bringing up the "Red threat". It was conducting its foreign policy like the mad bull that sees red everywhere "not because it is actually there but because its own eyes are filled with the blood of madness".