Nicaragua

To the Editors of the Crimson:

I greatly appreciated Jonathan Feigleson's article, "Ted Koppel Blames the Victim." I agree that the Nicaraguan side needs to be presented.

I spent the past summer in Nicaragua and saw ample justification for Nicaraguan fear of a U.S. military invasion.

On June 1, 1984, in the northern town of Ocotal, an estimated 500-600 contras attacked several targeted areas--all of which were civilian and economic. Armed with automatic rifles, mortars, and grenades, they killed many Nicaraguans and burned their rain mill, coffee processing plant, electric plant, machinery and houses. A U.S. nun who was in the area reports uncovering cardboard boxes for shells marked NATO and "locating hundreds of bullet jackets from U.S. made weapons among the charred remains."

During my last week in the town of Esteli on June 13, 1,500 contras descended from the Honduran border where they were receiving training from U.S. military personnel. They opened fire on civilians including children, pregnant women and students at an agricultural school about two miles outside of this town. In addition, the contras set fire to the machinery, supplies and crops of an adjacent, three-year old potato farm established and run by representatives from the Dutch government. At least $2.5 million worth of damage was caused by this attack--not to mention the many lives lost.

Our U.S. government policy of funding and militarily aiding the contras is clearly a powerful, destructive offensive move with sickening extensions and implications. One need only read excerpts from the recently exposed CIA manual that instructs the contras--among other things--in techniques of political assassination and kidnapping, to be further convinced of this.

As humane, responsible U.S. citizens, we, along with the Nicaraguans, have reason to worry and demand a halt to the U.S. covert war in Nicaragua. Carrie S. Govan '85