ARIAS PRESSES ORTEGA TO MOVE ON CEASE-FIRE

Author: By Philip Bennett, Globe Staff

Date: Sunday, October 18, 1987
Page: 1
Section: NATIONAL/FOREIGN

In an interview Thursday night, Arias, who was awarded the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize last week as the peace plan's principal author, urged President Daniel Ortega to accept an offer from Nicaraguan Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo to mediate talks between the rebels and the government.

"I think a negotiated cease-fire is essential if we hope to achieve peace in Central America, and it must be negotiated to provide guarantees to both sides," Arias said. "I really hope to find a little more flexibility in President Ortega."

On Thursday, the six members of the contra directorate announced in Washington that they planned to return uninvited to Managua during the next two weeks in an attempt to negotiate a cease-fire. Arias said the move would be a "positive step."

But Sandinista officials last week reiterated their unwillingness to meet directly with rebel leaders. The Sandinistas, who described the contras as mercenaries, have said that they will negotiate only with the Reagan administration or, possibly, with rebel field commanders.

Recently, Ortega suggested that if contra leaders returned to Nicaragua before the peace plan was in force without first renouncing their ties to the rebel movement, they would be arrested.

Sitting in his office at the Presidential House Thursday night, Arias, 46, was hoarse and apparently exhausted from two days of intense activity here following the announcement of the Nobel Prize on Tuesday. He said that the prize had raised hopes for the peace accord's success, despite what he called ''many great obstacles" still before the plan.

"Today, more than ever, I feel optimistic," he said. "The honor that the Nobel Prize signifies is an impulse to the five presidents of the region so that we don't let our efforts collapse.

"Of course, they did not give the Nobel Prize to Costa Rica or to me
because the process is complete or because we have already reached peace," he said. "But we are at the half-way point."

The peace agreement, which was signed in Guatemala on Aug. 7 by the presidents of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica, calls for the simultaneous implementation of a regional cease-fire, amnesty for all rebels and restoration of full press and political freedoms.

According to the agreeement, the accord is to become effective 90 days after it was signed, or on Nov. 5. This date is recognized by El Salvador and Nicaragua, although Arias said that he recognized Nov. 7, three months after the signing of the agreement, as the official deadline.

Arias said that the Nobel award would strengthen international support for the agreement, which is roundly opposed by the Reagan administration on the grounds that it is favorable to the Sandinistas. Arias again cited a request by the administration for $270 million in additional aid to the contras as one of the "obstacles threatening the peace agreement.

"There are profound differences between what Washington thinks and what Costa Rica thinks," Arias said. "We both believe that a durable peace in Central America is possible only if there is democracy. But how to achieve that democracy is where we part company. I feel that it is not through any military pressure that the contras might be able to exercise."

Since the signing of the peace accord, Nicaragua has moved early to demonstrate its willingness to comply with the plan. The Sandinistas have lifted a ban on the opposition press, declared a unilateral cease-fire in four small zones in the country, and have released some prisoners held for political crimes. When Arias won the Nobel Prize, the first head of state to call to congratulate him was Ortega.

But Arias, who said in the interview that he believed the Sandinistas would lose a fair election, were one held in Nicaragua next week, criticized what he described as the "intolerance" of Nicaragua's position. Arias said that some of the steps taken so far by Nicaragua were "inconceivable" before the signing of the peace plan. But he added: "The opening of La Prensa and Radio Catolica is not enough to say that there is full democracy in Nicaragua."

Arias commended the governments of El Salvador and Guatemala for meeting already this month with representatives of rebel groups fighting there. Both meetings showed little progress toward negotiation of a cease-fire, but, in the case of Guatemala, the talks mark the first formal discussions between the two sides in almost 25 years.

MAHAFF;10/16 NIGRO ;10/20,09:49 LATIN18