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From: tonyw@ubvax.UUCP (Tony Wuersch)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Strangling Nicaragua
Message-ID: <174@ubvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 8-May-85 14:41:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: ubvax.174
Posted: Wed May  8 14:41:09 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 12-May-85 11:10:29 EDT
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Organization: Ungermann-Bass, Inc., Santa Clara, CA
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Re La Prensa in Managua, I've recently had the opportunity to give advice
to a friend who was writing to the Nation in response to some articles
about suppression of human rights in Nicaragua.  The points I made to
him apply here too:

1.  Moralities and protections of human rights can differ from normal,
peaceful times in times of war.

2.  Two areas they can differ in is in draft mobilizations and protection
of absolute press freedoms (I don't accept, on the other hand, preventive
detentions, for instance).

3.  Our worries about suppressions of press freedoms, etc., would be
justified if those suppressions were not REVOCABLE.  I think that's a
general principle, that those weakenings of human rights protections
applied in warfare must be revocable when the war has ended.

4.  Hence, if Nicaragua is at war, than we should properly defend the
right of La Prensa to continue to publish and not be shut down, but we
can't reasonably complain if the Sandinistas decide to apply censorship
during wartime.  The Israeli government does no less, and it isn't even
in a state of war.

I believe Nicaragua is at war against the contras and their CIA/Somozista
supporters.  The evidence of invasion and death is everywhere within the
country.  Hence I question the political motives of those who continually
harp on La Prensa censorship.  Let's wait until the war is over before we
apply harsh judgments, please.

Tony Wuersch
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