KIDNAPING FAILS TO DETER U.S. GROUP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201180087-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 87
• Publication Date: August 15, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-0
0806R000201180087-4
WASHINGTON POST
15 August 1985
Kidnaping
Fails to Deter
U.S. Group
Nicaragua Peace
Vigils to Continue
By Marjorie Hyer
wuhmoti" Po.t Siam Writer
Leaders of Witness for Peace,
the interfaith movement organized
to ppe U3~nulitary intervention
in Nicaragua, yesterday pledged to
continue sending a ego ions into
combat areas there despite e kid-
na 'n last week of Americans
orces identified as the
aided Revolutionary I)emocratic
Alliance.
our government's war in Nic-
aragua is a national sin and dis-
grace," said Jim Wallis, pastor of the
Sojourners Community here and
one of the founders of Witness for
Peace. it is a moral offense to our
religious traditions and the best
ideals of our country."
The organization, he said, will no
longer "protest U.S. policy [in Nic-
araguaj from our own living rooms,"
referring to its strategy of sending
volunteers from U.S. churches and
synagogues into areas where the
rebel forces known as contras are
active.
In the 17 months Witness for
Peace has been operating, more
than 1,300 persons have made such
journeys without harm. But on Aug.
6, a "Peace Flotilla" of 15 volun-
teers, accompanied by 14 journal-
ists, was taken captive by rebels
along the San Juan River that forms
the border between Nicaragua and
Costa Rica. They were released the
following day.
Ed Griffin-Nolan, Nicaraguan co-
ordinator of WFP and a member of
the flotilla, said at yesterday's press
conference that although ;$ t itre
were conflicting reports identity of their captors, he was
convinced that they were members
of ARDE, the Spanish acronym for
the Revolutionary Democratic Al-
liance, headed by the former San-
dinista commander Eden Pastors.
Three Roman Catholic bishops, a
Benedictine prioress, a rabbi and
the head of the United Church of
Christ, all of whom serve on the
WFP advisory board, took turns at
castigating the Reagan administra"
Lion policy of military aid to the
contra groups seeking to overthrow
the government of Nicaragua.
"Our government supports ter-
rorism of the worst form" in sup-
porting the rebels, said Bishop Wal-
ter Sullivan of Richmond. "On the
one hand we condemn terrorism" in
many parts of the world "and yet we
support terrorism" in Nicaragua, he
said.
The Rev. Avery Post, President
of the United Church of Christ, said
the opposition of churches in this
country to intervention in Nicara-
gua "is seriously underestimated by
the U.S. government." .
The religious leaders conceded
that not all churches in this country
agree with their position. But Aux-
iliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of
Detroit noted, "You could have said.
that there was a split in the church
in Germany" over Nazi treatment of
the Jews.
The strategy of Witness for
Peace is to send U.S. volunteers "at
the invitation of Nicaraguan Chris-
tians" to live and work and "share
the fives of ordinary Nicaraguan
people" for two-week periods, ex-
plained Dick Taylor, a member of
the WFP steering committee.
Despite the hazards, he said, "we
believe that those who work for
peace must be willing to take the
same risks as those who fight in war
.. And we cannot sit by and
watch as our Nicaraguan neighbors
and our Christian brothers and sis-
ters are maimed and killed because
of our government's policy."
Asked if the kidnaping last week
had "frightened off" the WFP, Tay-
lor said, "We have people signed up
the test of this year and all the way
through 1986."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201180087-4