The Sandinista regime put a partial, unilateral cease-fire into effect Wednesday, and government troops withdrew from three designated zones in this war-torn nation.
But U.S.-funded contra rebels fighting to overthrow the Marxist government have said they will ignore the month-long cease-fire.
In northern Nueva Segovia province, where the 6-year-old war has been particularly intense, soldiers loitered in towns between Quilali and Wiwili after regrouping on the southern edge of the 215-square-mile cease-fire zone.
”If the contras pass in front of us right here, we can`t do anything about it,” said Claudio Gonzalez, 18, of Sonoto, as he and other soldiers hiked along a road near here with Russian-made AK-47 assault rifles. ”We just have to let them pass as long as they don`t attack us.”
Gonzalez, who wore weathered green army fatigues, said he had just come down from the mountains near El Chipote, where he spent eight months fighting the contras.
El Chipote, in the heart of the Nueva Segovia cease-fire zone, is the mountain where Augusto Cesar Sandino, for whom the Sandinistas are named, hid and fought in the late 1920s and early 1930s during his war to oust the U.S. Marines who were occupying Nicaragua.
The other cease-fire areas are in northern Jinotega province and in southern Zelaya province. In Zelaya, a Roman Catholic mass was held in the town of Yolaina to mark the start of the cease-fire, and army officers freed eight prisoners accused of collaborating with the contras.
The cease-fires were announced by President Daniel Ortega on Sept. 22 as part of a regional peace plan signed Aug. 7 in Guatemala City by the presidents of five Central American nations. The plan sets a Nov. 7 deadline for cease-fires, amnesties and restoration of democracy in the region. In an interview Tuesday night, Vice President Sergio Ramirez Mercado said the unilateral cease-fires a month early were intended to encourage the contras to lay down their arms and seek amnesty.
But contra leaders have said they were not consulted, and laying down their arms would amount to surrender.
While the war seemed far away Wednesday from the verdant rolling mountains, Gonzalez said contra activity has been intense here in recent months. He said the contras travel in groups of 30 to 40, attacking the civilian population and trying to disrupt the economy.
Though hundreds of troops withdrew from this and the other cease-fire areas, local militias armed with rifles and hand grenades will continue to defend the population, officials said. In case of attack, soldiers will return to the area as well.
There is widespread fear among the population, even amid expectations for peace. Local peace commissions are to visit families in cease-fire zones who have relatives among the contras. The contras have vowed to attack the commissioners, whose job it is to try to contact the rebels and persuade them to come down from the hills.
One restaurant owner, who requested that his name not be used, said that in his opinion, there ”certainly will be more attacks. If there is no dialogue, you can`t have a cease-fire.”
A boy carrying a machete, Santos Eduvija, 16, also said he was apprehensive now that the soldiers have left.
”I think it is more probable the contras are going to attack if the soldiers are gone,” he said.
