Security Council considers Nicaraguan complaint of escalating aggression.

The Security Council met on 7 September at Nicaragua's request, to examine what Nicaragua termed "a fresh escalation of aggression" against it (S/16731).

Nicaragua said four Nicaraguan schoolchildren and a construction worker had been killed in a terrorist attack. Also, a C-47 plane that had entered Nicaragua from Honduras had been shot down, resulting in the death of eight mercenaries.

The Council last considered a complaint by Nicaragua in April 1984, when the United States vetoed a draft resolution by which it would hae condemned the mining of Nicaraguan ports and called for an end to such acts (see UN Chronicle, 1984, No. 4).

Nicaragua was the only speaker at the meeting. The United States and USSR made statements in right of reply.

Javier Chamorro Mora (Nicaragua) told the Council that the death of the four children on 1 September was "particularly painful because they are part of a sad chian of similar deaths that have had to be confronted in the past four years". During that time, he said, "several thousand Nicaraguans" had been victims of terrorist attacks from abroad.

He recalled Nicaragua's complaint to the Council in April and reminded members that in May, the International Court of Justice had indicated provisional measures stating that the United states must refrain from any action blocking access to Nicaraguan ports, including the laying of mines, and must respect Nicaraguan sovereignty.

What was of concern now, he said, was the increasing involvement of United States citizens--Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) mercenaries--in the "no-longer-covert war" against Nicaragua. On 27 August, a United States C-47 aircraft that had entered Nicaragua from Honduras had been downed, resulting in the deaths of eight mercenaries, including the pilot, Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero, "an acknowledged assassin of our people". In the most recent incident, on 1 September, two United States citizens had died when a UH-500D helicopter and three push-and-pull airplanes had attacked a military school in Santa Clara.

"How does the Government of the United States justify the persecution of individuals participating in illegal military activities against Dominica and Haiti when it closes its eyes to those who do the same against Nicaragua?" he asked.

Only United States citizens closely linked to the CIA had access to the CIA infrastructure set up in Honduras for aggression against Nicaragua. "There is no operation against military or economic targets...