World/Commentary s Nicaragua’s hope for peace By PASTOR VALLE GARAY bloody war against Nicaragua is over. and the rest of the warmongers in the departments of state and defence, the Pentagon and the CIA, that their foreign policy in Central America is a dismal failure. They should be told to keep quiet and let the Nicara- guanssort out their VALLE GARAY differences among themselves. tained by Washington. The peace agreement also represents the last honourable way out for the Reagan Somebody in the White House ought to tell President Ronald Reagan that the Somebody ought to tell U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, his assistant for Latin American Affairs Elliot Abrams ; The government and the contras have in good faith signed a peace agreement which, despite last minute disapproval, interference and sabotage by the U.S., represents the only and perhaps last hope for peace in a country devastated by a war created, sponsored, funded and main- administration to avoid committing Amer- ican troops to a conflict which is none of its business and to avoid an intervention which would be violently opposed by the American people, by Nicaragua and by all nations. By signing the agreement, the contras have in fact rejectéd U.S. plans for a mil- itary solution to the conflict, one which continues to obsess Reagan, Shultz and company. This is the sort of short- sightedness that must be ended if further bloodshed is to be prevented. President Reagan’s “low-intensity” war against Nicaragua has become his White House’s trademark — one that has only prolonged the pain and suffering of our people. And clearly, his pursuit of a war against a practically defenseless nation has not enhanced his administration’s image. It has resolved nothing in U.S. favour, plunging the White House instead into a scandal of illegalities, graft and corruption which culminated this month in the indictment of three top Reagan security advisers on criminal charges. It is precisely this sort of sheer stupidity, and U.S. insistence on interfering in Nica- ragua’s internal affairs, that have cost 50,000 Nicaraguan deaths since 1981 and the destruction of the economy of an oth- erwise prosperous nation. Congress is about to pass a so-called “humanitarian aid” package for the con- tras in the same spineless manner in which it approved more military aid a year ago. Reagan added his voice to the chorus, expressing his “distrust of the sincerity and honesty” of the Sandinistas, astonishingly, on the very day his most sincere and trust- worthy advisers were being indicted in the Iran-Contra affair. Reagan’s expressed “caution” about the peace agreement and his questioning of “Sandinista sincerity” are a continua- tion of his uncanny ability to shoot off his mouth and his guns before engaging in any rational thinking. In his language, “caution” translates into “more guns for the contras,” meaning more death and atrocities for the Nicaraguan people. Unfortunately, Reagan’s record shows the need for extreme caution and an awareness Reagan will do everything pos- sible to sabotage all hopes for peace in Nicaragua and Central America. His record speaks for itself, and as loud as the contra guns. The U.S. absolutely ignored a 1986 International Court of Jus- tice ruling which ordered it to stop its illegal war against Nicaragua. Now it vio- lates its own constitution by letting the basement of the White House and security advisors circttmvent U.S.law and continue funding contras in violation of Congress. But Reagan’s contemptible recklessness doesn’t stop there; he sent 3,200 U.S. troops into Honduras which, according to Defence Secretary Frank Carlucci, were to provide “moral support” for the contras. This U.S. occupation was condemned in Latin Amer- ica and even the Honduran government officially protested Carlucci’s remark. At home, Reagan tells the press “Ollie North is a hero” and that he expects his accused advisers “‘will be found innocent of criminal charges” — clearly prejudicing the case presently before a U.S. District Court. These recent actions and statements in the past month clearly show the bank- tuptcy of U.S. policy in Central America and toward Nicaragua in particular. If peace is to be given a chance in the region, President Reagan ought to be per- suaded to join in the peace efforts by keep- ing as low a profile as possible. Failing that, Reagan should have the decency to hold bilateral talks with Nica- ragua and finally, failing that, to simply stay quiet, keep out of Central America and let the nations of the region work outa permanent peace plan among themselves. In short, President Reagan should leave us alone once and for all. Pastor Valle Garay is Consul-General for the Nicaraguan Embassy in Canada. Palestinian says support will end strife Israel has not left the occupied. West Bank and Gaza, despite massive protests by its residents, because it provides too lucra- tive a market, a Palestinian women’s repre- sentative told a Vancouver audience last week. Najwa Jardali said March 30 that the Palestinian population of the two territories provides Israel with a pool of cheap labour, while 90 per cent of the products consumed there come from Israel. In a speech marking the Day of the Land — which was observed in occupied Palestine'with massive street demonstrations — Jardali said that international support can end the strife by forcing Israel to with- draw from the occupied territories. Jardali, a school teacher in the West Bank and an executive member of the Pales- tinian Union of Women’s Work Commit- tees, said Israeli repression of the protests has been so severe that even governments usually sympathetic to Israel have taken 4 second look at the Palestinian situation. “For the first time, the population feels there is hope, hope for a better future. I think this is what has kept the momentum going full force,” she told a meeting spon- sored by the Vancouver United Nations Association, Canadian Jewish Outlook magazine and several other groups. This year marks the 21st anniversary of occupation of the West Bank, a Palestinian homeland formerly linked with Jordan, and the formerly Egyptian-controlled Gaza strip. The Day of the Land has been observed with demonstrations since 1976, when six Palestinians were killed while pro- testing further Israeli annexation of occu- pied territory. Protests rocked the territories March 30, despite a total clampdown on activities by the Israeli military — including sealing off the areas to journalists — asa result of sev- eral weeks of intense street battles by unarmed citizens against Israeli soldiers. The territories were seized during the 1967 Middle East War. Since then, these have been held through brutal military force in a manner not unlike the way the govern- ment keeps up white minority rule in South Africa. Since that war the government has for- bade Palestinians from drilling for water, handing over those rights to large Israeli companies. The result today is that more than 50 per cent of the water supply has been diverted to occupation settlements and the former largely peasant population has been driven off the land. School curriculum, based either on the Jordanian or Egyptian models, has not been allowed to progress for the past 20 years, and thousands of books have been banned. Universities have been closed, some for up to two years, as “preventative” measures, Jardali said. The health system has been steadily erod- ing, and many isolated villages have no medical care at all, she related. Protests against these conditions are met with “collective” punishment, a measure banned under Geneva convention. As prac- tised by the occupation troops the home of a person simply suspected of committing a security violation is razed, so that the per- son’s entire family is punished. Palestinians are subject to “administra- tive detention,” which can be imposed without charges for six months at a time, and renewed indefinitely, she noted. (Jardali began the tour after the sche- duled speaker, Zuhira Kamal, president of the Palestinian Union of Women’s Work Committees and a frequently detained per- son, was again placed under administrative detention.) Such measures were designed to suppress dissent. But in imposing these, the Israeli occupation forces have “misanalyzed the situation,” Jardali said. “They thought that by allowing free elec- tions, the people would not elect (pro- Palestine Liberation Organization) city councils or mayors. (But) the vast majority of those elected were pro-PLO,” she reported. Women’s group switched focus after 1978 from providing charity aid to doing “grassroots” work primarily among Pales- territories. tinian workng women, teaching basic skills and childcare. Women have been instrumental in the protests, providing emergency care for the injured and bereft, and even smuggling food into areas cuts off by the military, Jardali reported. “Of course, all this hasn’t gone unnoticed by the military. Several of our members have gone underground,” she said. Almost the entire population of the terri- tories has been mobilized against the occu- pation, with even the merchants keeping their shops hut for all but a few hours daily. The occupation forces have responded by TRIBUNE PHOTO — DAN KEETON NAJWA JARDALI... Canada must back call for Israeli withdrawal from occupied imposing total isolation, cutting off fuel supplies and severing telephone lines, Jar- dali related. But with even the United States govern- ment forced to admonish the Israeli government for the brutality in the occupied territories—and with External Affairs Minis- ter Joe Clark’s recent statements against the brutality — there is new hope for an end to the occupation and the creation of a Pales- tinian state in the territories, she said. Jardali urged Canadians and the Cana- dian government to support a demand for an international conference hosted by the United Nations, which would include par- ticipation by the PLO. Pacific Tribune, April 6, 1988 « 5 i } } | t t h k Ha : H P - linet natin is sot sin aeons ai