It took a bit of effort to get into this camp. The temporary housing is very limited there. Most of the refugees live in the real housing that is there and I think they are also being very well cared for. Most recently and most disturbing to the U.N. folks and to our people with regard to the refugees themselves is that there are several hundred young males who have come out of Managua in order not to be conscripted into the Nicaraguan Army who are in those camps. Those camps are predominantly farmers who are less educated or not educated at all and these young males. ages 17 to 22 or so. are for the most part college educated. or at least high school educated. and they are very restless. not willing to do their share of the work and so on. Those numbers are growing. So we may very well hear about the young male population dominating some of these refugee camps. They are picked up by the Honduran Government and given the choice of being shipped back to Nicaragua or going to the refugee camps. It is a bone of considerable concern in the international community at the present moment. But what concerns me the most is what I learned from talking with the refugees that I met there. the Nicaraguan refugees. talking with Ambassador Negroponte. talking with our DCN Shepard Lowman. talking with Vince Shields in intelligence. visiting with Colonel Percy and spending a lot of time with our task force and learning about what is going on with respect to the Contras and with respect to what we might anticipate from the current status of affairs and what is likely to occur in the next few months with regard to refugees. as well as the whole Central American picture. Quite frankly. out of the entire visit this concerns me the most and I think it should concern you the most. First of all. as my colleagues know. this Congress has not supported the Contras. the socalled freedom fighters. since June of last year.
Identified stereotypes
Young, educated males are restless and unwilling to work.