Posted on 12/07/2008 9:35:23 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
MANAGUA (Reuters) - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, angry because the United States is rethinking an aid program, pressed Washington on Monday for billions of dollars in war reparations dating back to a 1980s civil war.
The International Court of Justice, based in the Hague, ordered the United States in 1986 to pay reparations to Nicaragua for training, arming and financing Contra rebels and mining Nicaraguan ports during a conflict that killed tens of thousands of people.
"The United States has not honored the judge's order," Ortega said on national television.
The World Court never set a figure for compensation but Sandinistas said Washington owed the country $17 billion. Washington at the time rejected the court's jurisdiction.
Ortega led a Marxist government during the war, which ended shortly after he was voted out of power in 1990. He bounced back to the presidency in 2006.
The U.S. government said last week it is reviewing a $175 million program of aid to Nicaragua because of concerns about recent elections in which Ortega's leftist Sandinista party won 105 of 146 municipal races. The opposition claimed the polls were rigged.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Good idea.
Idiot Bush with a few weeks left will probably comply and give our money away..if there is any left.
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