Nicaragua sets up int'l center to train anti-mine personnel

[Judi Lynn]

Nicaragua sets up int'l center to train anti-mine personnel
English.news.cn 2013-08-22 11:14:29

MANAGUA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Nicaragua opened Wednesday a modern international demining training center in the Chiltepe Peninsula near the capital Managua.

According to the country's state-run news portal El 19 Digital, the center was established with a donation from Russia.

Nicaraguan Army Chief General Julio Cesar Aviles and Russian Ambassador to Nicaragua Nikolay Vladimir unveiled the Nicaragua-Russia Friendship International Humanitarian Demining Center.

Nicaragua, which declared to be free of anti-personnel mines in 2010, now has a modern demining training center of its own. Military members from other countries in Latin America will be trained at the center, General Aviles said at the unveiling ceremony.

More:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-08/22/c_132653101.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. Foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration

Regarding Ronald Reagan, Nicaragua, landmines:

US Conference of Catholic Bishops
Statement on Central America

~snip~
We have argued that direct military aid to forces seeking the overthrow of a government with which we are not at war and with which we maintain diplomatic relations is at least legally doubtful and morally wrong. U.S. mining of Nicaraguan harbors, training and supplying of irregular forces and otherwise aggressing against another sovereign nation seem clearly to violate treaty obligations under the U.N. and OAS charters and the Rio Treaty and to violate as well the principles of customary international law. The finding by the International Court of Justice that our government was guilty of nine different violations of international law is at least persuasive. But it is not ours to argue the law, nor is our objective to present policy based on the legal issues.

More:
http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/global-issues/latin-america-caribbean/central-america/statement-on-central-america.cfm

[center]~ ~ ~[/center]

Nicaragua v. United States

The Republic of Nicaragua v. The United States of America[1] was a 1984 case of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in which the ICJ ruled in favor of Nicaragua and against the United States and awarded reparations to Nicaragua. The ICJ held that the U.S. had violated international law by supporting the Contras in their rebellion against the Nicaraguan government and by mining Nicaragua's harbors. The United States refused to participate in the proceedings after the Court rejected its argument that the ICJ lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. The U.S. later blocked enforcement of the judgment by the United Nations Security Council and thereby prevented Nicaragua from obtaining any actual compensation.[2] The Nicaraguan government finally withdrew the complaint from the court in September 1992 (under the later, post-FSLN, government of Violeta Chamorro#, following a repeal of the law requiring the country to seek compensation.[3]

The Court found in its verdict that the United States was "in breach of its obligations under customary international law not to use force against another State", "not to intervene in its affairs", "not to violate its sovereignty", "not to interrupt peaceful maritime commerce", and "in breach of its obligations under Article XIX of the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between the Parties signed at Managua on 21 January 1956."

The Court had 16 final decisions upon which it voted. In Statement 9, the Court stated that while the U.S. encouraged human rights violations by the Contras by the manual entitled Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare, this did not, however, make such acts attributable to the U.S.[4]

~snip~
The very long judgment first listed 291 points. Among them that the United States had been involved in the "unlawful use of force." The alleged violations included attacks on Nicaraguan facilities and naval vessels, the mining of Nicaraguan ports, the invasion of Nicaraguan air space, and the training, arming, equipping, financing and supplying of forces #the "Contras"# and seeking to overthrow Nicaragua's Sandinista government. This was followed by the statements that the judges voted on.[11

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaragua_v._United_States

[Peace Patriot]

2. Thank you for identifying WHO mined Nicaragua--'Saint' Ronnie!

That bloody-handed war criminal!