NICARAGUAN, SUING U.S., TELLS OF EXILE ATTACK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100890056-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 56
• Publication Date: December 5, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100890056-4
AF EARED
ON PAGE
NEW YORK TIMES
5 DECEMBER 1982
Nicaraguan, Suing U.S., Tells of Exile Attack
A Nicaraguan health official who said
she was attacked and beaten by a group
of ants-Sandinista on her country's bor-
der with Honduras last year has bees
brought to the United States to publicize
a suit filed by seven Nicaraguans
against the Reagan Administration.
The suit seeks to challenge American
support for such paramilitary groups.
The Official, Dr. Myrna K C mning-
ham, who works for the Nicaraguan.
Ministry of Health, and the other plain-
tiffs are represented by the Center for
Constitutional Rights, a New York-
based public interest legal organiza-
tion. Her two-week visit to the United
Cates is sponsored by the center.
Bored attacks aimed at terrorizing
Nicaraguan citizens.
In the complaint, the Nicaraguans 1
tell of rape, kidnapping, torture and
murder in attacks on their communi.
ties.
Intelligence officials have acknowl-
edged that the Central Intelligence
Agency provided financial and military
aid to paramilitary forces that have
Conducted hit-and-run raids in Nicara-
gua. The officials say the goal of such
raids is to stop Nicaragua from provid-
ing arms to guerrillas in Salvador.
Dr. Cunningham, who is half-Miskito
Indian and who is from the predomi-
nantly Miskito region of Zelaya, was in-
The Nicaraguans are seeking dam- terviewed Friday in the center's New
ages and an injunction against future York office. She spoke in English, occa-
raids into Nicaragua. Lawyers from the sionally resorting to Spanish.
center filed the suit on behalf of the Dr. Cunningham said that on Dec. 28,
Nicaraguans in a Federal Court in 1981, a jeep taking her and a group of
Washington on Nov. 30. Representative health officials from the village of Bil-
Ronald V. Dellums, Democrat of Cali- waskarma to Huaspin was-stopped by
forma, and 'two Florida residents joined + about 15 armed men. Some of them, she
closing military training camps oper-
ated by Nicaraguan exile groups in
Florida. ham said the others were "white." She
Reagan Among Those Named said that she later recognized them as
Lawyers from the center say the former members of the national guard
Nicaraguans have the right to sue under of the deposed Government of Anasta-
the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789, which sio Somoza Debayle.
allows foreigners to sue in United States After beating her, the group took her
Federal courts for violations of interne- back to Bilwaskarma, she said, where
tianal law. - she and a nurse, Regina Lewis, were as-
Among those the complaint names as saulted. She said the men also de-
defendants are President Reagan, Wilstroyed medical supplies. Dr. Cu ning-
liam J. Casey, Director of Central Intel-. _ham said she and the nurse were then
ligenoe, former Secretary of State Alex- forced to accompany the men across
ander M. Haig Jr., Secretary of State the Honduran border. After a two-hour
George P. Shultz, Secretary of Defense walk through the jungle, she said,-their
Caspar Weinberger, and members of
Cuban and Nicaraguan exile groups
based in Florida.
Officials from the Center for Consti-
tutional Rights went to Nicaragua to ob-
tain testimony from the plaintiffs.
Their testimony, according to the cen-
ter's lawyers, provides evidence that
the Reagan Administration has spon-
said, were Miskitos from Bilwaskarma,
where she had been working as a re-
gional director of health. Dr. Cunning-
captors took them to a camp where
some Miskitos who said they belonged
to a group called the "Two Crosses Bri-
gade" said they would kill her.
Asked why the Miskitos whom she
knew among the anti-Sandiest bands
wanted to threaten her life, Dr. Cun-
ningham said the nature of the training
they received with the former national
guardsmen made them regard such vio-
lence as "normal actfvity."
Dr. Cunningham said that the Miskl-
tos among her captors had told her that
although they did not like the former
guardsmen, the leader of the Miskito in-
surgents, Steadman Fagoth, had said
that it was necessary "for the moment"
to be allied with them.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100890056-4