British Columbia/World |

Bo Rae ‘

‘ee

As U.S. troops gathered on the Nica-
raguan border, a mother and father
spoke to a packed meeting in Vancouver
Friday and told how their son became
the first American to die in the U.S. war
against Nicaragua.

The audience listened as Dr. David
Linder and his wife, Elizabeth, described
the contra ambush that killed their son
and two of his Nicaraguan co-workers as
they worked to survey the site for a
hydro-electric plant to supply power toa
northern Nicaraguan village. The meet-
ing was sponsored by the B.C. Peace
Council which brought the Linders to
Vancouver.

Benjamin Linder, a 27-year-old engi-
neer, had been working in Nicaragua for
three years when the contras attacked.
“The volunteers were immobilized by
grenades, by shrapnel. Then Ben was
killed with a bullet in the forehead from
about two feet,” said Dr. Linder. The
two Nicaraguans who died in the attack
were stabbed.

“Ben was murdered by the contras
because he was a engineer. Just like the
others that the contras have killed: tar-
geted because they were health care
workers, because they were teachers. The
contras wipe out everything that is good
and decent,” he said.

The Linders have been touring the
U.S. and Canada since June last year
talking about Ben’s work in Nicaragua
and raising funds to help continue that
work, Their tour has taken in 50 cities in
40 states and five provinces.

Both soft-spoken, they had little expe-
rience in public speaking before the tour
but “we went with the dogged and

David and Elizabeth Linder with pamphlet showing son Ben, killed by contras.

Slain volunteer contra
target, parents charge

determined purpose to talk about Ben
and to bring this war to an end,” said Dr.
Linder.

Ben had visited Nicaragua a few times
before deciding to move there to help
provide electrical power throughout the
country. As a mechanical engineer he did
not want to work in the war industry in
the U.S. as so many are required to do.

. “Ben saw that the revolution’s priority
was the restructuring of Nicaraguan
society for its people, particularly its
poor people,” Dr. Linder said.

Fund-raising on the tour has been
good, and the goal of $200,000 is near.
When the Linders were in Nicaragua for
Ben’s funeral they asked how much
money would be required to complete
the hydroelectric plant in the village of
San Jose de Bocay that Ben was working
on when he was killed. The Sandinista
government estimated that $200,000
would be necessary to complete the pro-
ject.

Bocay is the region where Nicaraguan
troops have been repelling contras in a
conflict used as a pretext for increased
U.S. military involvement in neighbour-
ing Honduras.

Interestingly, the Linders reported
that some of their most successful meet-
ings were held in Florida, the headquar-
ters of the contras who are based in
Miami.

Organized by the children of Cuban
emigres, the meetings were well-attended
and supportive of a changed US. policy
in Central America. “We were surprised.
That was not the reception we expected
in Florida,” said Dr. Linder.

Crisis created to revive -

contra aid,

Continued from page 1

A Honduran military spokesman said
last week that there was no firm evidence
Nicaraguan troops had crossed into Hon-
duras.

Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega has
denied Sandinista troops are in Honduras.

U.S. troops have crossed an unofficial
32-kilometre buffer zone from which Amer-
ican forces were supposedly barred. And
Honduran jets have bombed Nicaraguan
territory near the border.

U.S. military and administration spo-
kesmen have not ruled out the direct use of
American troops in the conflict.

A United Nations fact-finding team has
been in the area at Nicaragua’s request, but
is only operating on the Nicaraguan side of
the border. Honduras has not given. the
team permission to enter its territory.

In the U.S. Senate, a right-wing group
immediately proposed a $30-million aid
package for the contras. But leading Central
America peace advocate, Democratic Sena-
tor Mark Hatfield, has introduced legisla-
tion to require the approval of Congress
before U.S. troops may be deployed in
combat. i -

Such developments show that an attempt
to panic Congress and the Senate into pro-
viding some form of aid for the contras —
whose record of atrocities has increasingly
alienated them from potential supporters in
both houses — has failed.

Twice within the last six weeks attempts
to aid the contras failed: first when the
House of Representatives rejected further
military aid, second when conservatives
rejected a package of alleged “humanitar-
ian” aid.

The latest escalation has Reagan’s oppo-
sition charging that the affair has been
exploited to renew demands for military
assistance to the contras.

“This is not the first time the president
has made use of his military authority after
he lost a vote on the contras,” charged
Democrat Edward Markey. He was refer-
ring to a 1986 incident when U.S. helicop-
ters were used to ferry Honduran troops to
the border.

“It is an irresponsible involvement of
American troops.in the conflict in Central
America and an unwise escalation of ten-
sions in that region,” Markey charged.

In Honduras, Christian Democratic
Party leader Efrain Diaz Arrivall said bas-
ing contras in Honduras has eroded the
country’s image.

“More than militarily, I think what the
conservatives here are afraid of is the ideo-
logical connotation of the Sandinista revo-
lution,” he said.

Ata special session of the United Nations
on March 18, Nicaragua’s representative
charged the Reagan administration was

Critics say

“laying the ground for direct military action
against our country, to step up its military
presence on Central American soil and to
divert against former senior administration °
officials.” Rita Dalia Casco was referring to
the grand jury indictment of Iran-Contra
conspirators Col. Oliver North and Admi-
ral John Poindexter.

Casco, of Nicaragua’s Foreign Ministry,
said the Reagan administration had created
the latest conflict in an attempt to revive
support for contras.

_ And, she charged, the U.S. president
wants to scuttle the peace plan signed by five
Central American nations, including Hon-
duras and Nicaragua. Costa Rican presi-
dent Oscar Arias won the Nobel Peace Prize
for introducing the plan, which received
only token support from the Reagan-

_adminstration. The president’s attempt to

scuttle the peace process with a made-in-
Washington scheme was rejected by the five
countries.

Critics have tabled evidence backing
charges that the Reagan administration has
cooked up the crisis: for example, the fact

that CBS news broadcast an accurate report —

of the troop deployment on the afternoon -
of Wednesday, March 16. But the request
for aid from the Honduran government was
not made until that evening:

Several hundred American protestors
were arrested in coast-to-coast demonstra-
tions against the U.S. troop deployment last —
week.

In B.C., a candlelight vigil in Victoria
heard Rev. Dan Noonan of the Anglican
Church and Deidre Kelly of Victoria’s Cen-
tral America Support Committee speak
against the intervention.

A demonstration at 12 noon in Robson
Square was set for Wednesday, March 23.

RANKIN
COMPANY

Barristers & Solicitors

4th Floor, 195 Alexander St.
Vancouver, B.C. V6A 1N8

682-2781

Offers a broad range of legal
services including:

9 Personal Injury & Insurance claims
5 Real Estate & Conveyancing

9 Divorce & Family Law

0 Labour Law

9 Criminal Law

Oo Estates & Wills

TIM LOUIS

~| RCOMPAN YS Ie _. APUBLICFORUM
e Britannia Secondary School Auditorium
Florists Wil Faro ei aes ae
iS sate ae divorce te Wednesday, April 6
° ncin 5
Flowers for all occassions. Soe price $200* at 7:30 p.m.
f will $500* ; :
#154429 Kingsway Seances eects $300* The Very Reverend Robert Smith (Shaughnessy Heights United Church) will
urna Wills $50* chair a panel discussion on the plight of children living in poverty in Vancouver.
B by B.C. V5H 2A] ICBC contingency fee agreement MP Margaret Mitchell, MLA John Cashore, City Councillor Carole Taylor, City
Telephone Welfare/UIC appeals _ No fee Councillor Libby Davies and School Trustee Phil Rankin will respond. The
434-3533 * All prices plus disbursements audience will be invited to make comments and ask questions. Call 685-5599 -
Divorce/Family Law/Criminal Law for more information.
‘ali Se Ae ee i
ws = an | Sai aid | safes oe ales by: The Yaneoures planarity School Teachiara ya renialiony! Vancouven Seconay
‘ Ko : hers’ iation, Distri t tatives, Chi ve tion Committee, En
SURES ei 108-2182 West 12th/732-7678 gts AE eetopsnbiiee recta ee olan see
8, 32ers Tim Louis Michael Hambrook
eM Ss A 5 a

Children and Poverty

2 ¢ Pacific Tribune, March 23, 1988