Security Council considers Nicaraguan complaint against United States, takes no action.

During three meetings in December, the Security Council considered Nicaragua's complaint about "the extremely serious situation creatd by the escalation of acts of aggression, the repeated threats and the new acts of provocation" directed against Nicaragua "by the current United States Administration."

Eighteen speakers participated in the debate in meetings held on 10, 11 and 12 December 1985. The series of meetings adjourned without a draft resolution having been tabled.

The Council had before it three letters transmitted by the Nicaraguan Charge d'affaires to the Secretary-General.

The first, dated 5 December, from President Daniel Ortega Saavedra to the Secretary-General (A/40/993-S/17674), recalled that he had informed the Contadora Group (Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela) and the Support Group (Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay) of several considerations with regard to the process of negotiation which was being promoted by the Contadora Group.

Nicaragua's President said his country had been insisting that there must be inimum security conditions guaranteeing that any commitments entered into would not endanger Nicaragua's sovereignty and independence. Those minimum conditions "necessarily imply the immediate cessation of the aggression against Nicaragua and a commitment by the Government of the United States to desist from making war against my country". Until now, "not only are these conditions non-existent, but the brutal aggression imposed on the people of Nicaragua at the cost of the lives of thousands of Nicaraguans is constantly increasing."

New developments: There had been new developments, he went on, which entailed "an extremely serious escalation of the mercenary war, namely, that surface-to-air missiles of the SAM-7 type have begun to be used, causing the deaths of 14 Nicaraguan soldiers on 3 December 1985 and the destruction of the helicopter transporting them". The "United States Government alone is capable of making these missiles available, there being no other country in the hemisphere which possesses them", he said. The use of that type of weapon "sets an extremely grave precedent on the continent inasmuch as an irregular force is for the first time being supplied with surface-to-air missiles of the SAM-7 type".

The Nicaraguan President stated that so long as conditions guaranteeing Nicaragua's "very survival" did not exist, the Contadora Group should suspend the discussions on pending aspects of the Contadora Act and turn its attention to "urgent and direct action vis-a-vis the Government of the United States which will make it possible to persuade it to put an end to the aggression against my country".

The second letter, dated 6 December (A/40/994-S/17675), contained a protest note from Nicaragua's Acting Foreign Miister to the United States Secretary of State, stating that "the irresponsible attitude of the United States Government in providing the terrorist groups in its service" with SAM27 surface-to-air missiles "raises the Central American conflict to levels hitherto unknown and seriously endangers civil aircraft in the area, which may at any time fall victim to the criminal acts of these groups".

The attitude of the United States, he continued, constituted "a direct and total rebuff to the efforts being made to find a peaceful, negotiated solution to the Central American crisis" and made it "imperative that the Contadora Group should urgently take specific steps to persuade the United States to change its aggressive policy against Nicaragua and the Central American region, putting an end to its illegal policy of force and making possible...