It appeared in the papers in this country that these communities were nothing but civilians but the fact of the matter is that they were supply depots for the Communist Sandinista army in the field and many of the people who lived in these communities were people who were working for the Communist Sandinistas. military people. and others who were dispensing this war material to the Sandinista army. So it was a supply depot that they were attacking and not a civilian installation. We went out to the refugee camps. Those refugee camps have approximately 50.000 Nicaraguans and Salvadorans who have fled the military upheaval in their countries. fled the war. and have come to these refugee camps to get away from it. The vast majority of these people are from Nicaragua. There are probably 40.000 certified refugees in Honduras from Nicaragua and they estimate as many as 200.000 who are not certified. That means they are just around the countryside. When we went to these refugee camps and talked to them. to a man and to a woman. the refugees said the reason they left Nicaragua was because of the repression. because the government had confiscated their cows. their goats. their chickens. their farms for the state and they could not survive. They had been relocated. forced into relocation camps. some of them Indian refugees. and they simply could not tolerate it and they wanted freedom and democracy in their country. Mr. Speaker. because of that they left. They fled Nicaragua trying to get to freedom and they have been living. some of them. in those refugee camps for as much as 7 to 8 years. We questioned a number of these people about why they were in the refugee camps. One old man said he had two sons killed because they were accused of being Contras. One young girl fled because when she was 16 years old they tried to force her into the militia and she did not want to go in.
Keywords matched
refugee refugees