ie U.S. Congress readies for yet
a Reagan effort to obtain $100-mil-
hn Contra funds later this month,

Bes of theft and drug-dealing are
Over the heads of various contra

4 last-ditch attempt to present some
€ of unity, the factions met for 13
* behind closed doors in Miami.
sell sent envoy Philip Habib and
3 the group emerged claiming a
front which they hope will hold to-
> Until voting day.
tu. © Lribune spoke with Nicaragua’s
1. senheral in Toronto, Pastor Valle-
 *Y about these latest moves:
‘ * * *
h There’s no doubt enormous efforts are
Ane Made to pull the factions together.
Vell yes is being done in the midst of
‘ased accusations of drug traffiking
‘ontras. The Miami Herald reports

May 9 that while the Miami meetings
were going on, a House committee voted
on May 8 to subpoena U.S. bank records
of suppliers and brokers for Nicaraguan
contras in an investigation into misuse of
$27-million in ‘humanitarian funds”’ ap-
proved by Congress last year. This will
involve 11 of Miami’s 13 major banks. It

is also widely known that at least $17-mil- -

lion of the $27-million has disappeared.

What we’re seeing is the contra leader-
ship — not as political leaders and an
alternative government — but as a gang
of thieves and drug dealers. The evi-
dence is so strong, Reagan had to send
Habib to Miami to pull the contra factions
together, otherwise any chance the
$100-million would be authorized could
be lost.

Militarily, the contras, for all practical
purposes, have been defeated. The latest
moves by Reagan and Habib are a last-

% oo '
* tra leaders in Miami: donning T-shirts while pocketing funds and drug-running. As
Sressional vote nears, smiles hide the scandals.

Fake unity can’t hide smell of
Contra scandals as vote nears

ditch, desperate effort to breath life into a
corpse. Recently the contras resorted to
what they do best — murdering civilians.
Two days ago they assassinated 18 civi-
lians, including an eight year-old boy, on
a Nicaraguan cooperative farm and then
burned the farm down.

These are typical CIA-trained gangs-
ter acts. And this latest atrocity comes
only days after the so-called unified
leadership in Miami appointed a military
directorate to look into damaging
charges of contra atrocities. Either they
have no control over their troops or their
Miami agreements are worthless.

It must be something for the U.S.
Congress to watch the latest contra deba-
cle, a group they have supported, where
one leader is fighting another, where the
constant flow of money from the U.S. is
being diverted into the personal accounts
of the contra leaders, and where dru
dealing charges abound.

Surely the U.S. public cannot be fool- .

ish enough to continue pumping funds to
a group of men who simply abscond with
it. These leaders, the former elite, are
bilking the fools who are dying for them
in the field as well as the fools who are
supplying them money from the White
House. This whole scandal is now out in
the open.

It’s impossible for any rational human
being to believe that these individuals
can have any legal or moral claim to gov-
ern Nicaragua or any country for that
matter.

But while all this is happening, it is
important to remember that the threat
against the Nicaraguan revolution is very
real. Last week the New York Times
carried an article arguing that it will not
be too difficult for the U.S. to invade and

Both contra troops and U.S. public are
victims of the coverup.

occupy Nicaragua — they estimated a
few weeks rather than a previously
thought one year — bombing the country
followed by occupation. The plans are
ready for such a direct U.S. operation.

One method to prepare the U.S. public
for the day when direct military action
against Nicaragua takes place is to use
the mechanism of Congressional ap-
proval of contra aid. For that they need
some kind of visible contra unity — and
that is what is behind all these desperate
moves. :

The $100-million contra aid figure is
peanuts — the amount is immaterial.
What Reagan considers important is
Congressional approval of contra ac-
tivities — which is carte blanche for his
next step, commitment of U.S. troops
into Nicaragua. Once Reagan gets the
Congressional nod, he will, in his own
way of presenting issues to the American
people, move into the phase of direct
U.S. action. This is what is at the bottom
of Congressional approval of contra
funding.

Sa

INTERNATIONAL FOCUS Tom Morris

gendas
®n June 16

fo outh Africa’s liberation
Ae will mark the 10th an-
Yersary of the 1976 Soweto
Prising with a three-day gen-
fo Strike which will shut
eh the country. Every-
. ere people will leave the
hakPlace and schoolrooms,
Ops will be closed and public

Tallies and demonstrations are
Planned.

Prete apartheid regime is also
dit Ene for the day. On June
link anned all public gatherings
‘ €d to the Soweto
Wil) memoration, a ban which
in Tun through to June 30 —

effect, a state of emergency.

al; be regime has beefed up its
une draconic Internal Sec-
De Y Act by extending the
With’ a person can be jailed
Out charges from 14 to 180
Da. It will give Law and
Unk €r Minister le Grange
ty tered powers to designate
ae areas’’ where he
disc €s. All this is being
«-Ussed in the country’s
isn tiament” under euphem-
of a ‘‘public safety bill’’.

Elsewhere in this issue, the

Tribune draws attention to the
incredible callousness of the
Mulroney government on the
issue of applying mandatory
sanctions against apartheid.
Through External Affairs Min-
ister Clark in Ottawa and
Canada’s United Nations
ambassador Stephen Lewis in
New York, the government
clings to its discredited wait-

APA VLAD

and-see position while the re-
gime murders its citizens daily.
The Tories still insist they
know what’s best for the
embattled people of South Af-
rica, despite the most recent
crystal-clear call for sanctions
now. It boggles the mind.
Eminent persons groups and
Commonwealth conferences
and all the excuses in the world

cannot hide the fact that the
Mulroney government is ready
to watch the apartheid regime
attack its people in the next
days with a fury that will know
no limits.

It’s a disgusting and immoral
position. The Tories are
jeopardizing the decent name
of Canada in the eyes of the
people of South Africa and the
world.

Clark, Mulroney, Lewis and
the entire mob of Tories
should spend June 16 in front
of South African Defence
Force shotguns and trunch-
eons. They should breathe in

_ the tear gas deeply. And then

they should discuss sanctions.

Counting up
the victims

Two medical research re-
ports were issued by the
University of Cape Town in
mid-May on the nature of
deaths and injuries of victims
of police violence in the Cape
area.

They reveal more than 50
per cent of people shot by
police were shot in the back,
another 11.6 per cent had
wounds in their sides showing

they had turned to run as police
opened fire.

The average age of those
shot was 25.2 years, and 12.2
per cent were under 15. Bird-
shot was used in 40 per cent of
deaths and the majority of
deaths were caused by shot-
guns. Almost 35 per cent of the
victims were shot more than
once, 6 per cent at least five
times.

Doctors at a Crossroad
clinic report they treated about
500 victims shot by police in a
10-month period in 1985,
including five children below
age nine and 36 between ages
10 and 15. Other people were
treated for severe beatings,
mainly by batons, and had
wounds including ruptured
eardrums and lacerations.

The reports also reveal a di-
lemma faced by clinic staff
who see the names of people
shot by police underlined in
red in the admission book to be
handed back over to police la-
ter.

This is the real South Africa
today. It’s a far cry from the
Tory caucus room where the
“sanctions if necessary, but
not necessarily sanctions’’ pol-
icy is set.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 11, 1986 e 9