Editing Contras (section)

==Human rights violations==
Americas Watch, which subsequently became part of [[Human Rights Watch]], accused the Contras of:<ref name=AW1986>{{cite news|title=Human Rights in Nicaragua 1986|url=https://archive.org/details/humanrightsinnic00amer|url-access=registration|author=The Americas Watch Committee|publisher=Americas Watch|date=February 1987}}</ref>
*targeting health care clinics and health care workers for assassination<ref name="ReferenceA">Human Rights in Nicaragua 1986, p. 21</ref>
*kidnapping civilians<ref name="ReferenceB">Human Rights in Nicaragua 1986, p. 19</ref>
*torturing civilians<ref>Human Rights in Nicaragua 1986, p. 19, 21</ref>
*executing civilians, including children, who were captured in combat<ref>Human Rights in Nicaragua 1986, p. 24</ref>
*raping women<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
*indiscriminately attacking civilians and civilian houses<ref name="ReferenceB"/>
*seizing civilian property<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
*burning civilian houses in captured towns.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Human Rights Watch released a report on the situation in 1989, which stated: "[The] contras were major and systematic violators of the most basic standards of the laws of armed conflict, including by launching [[indiscriminate attack]]s on civilians, selectively murdering non-combatants, and mistreating prisoners."<ref name="NICARAGUA">[https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1989/WR89/Nicaragu.htm "Nicaragua"] Human Rights Watch, 1989</ref>

In his affidavit to the World Court, former contra [[Edgar Chamorro]] testified that "The CIA did not discourage such tactics. To the contrary, the Agency severely criticized me when I admitted to the press that the FDN had regularly kidnapped and executed agrarian reform workers and civilians. We were told that the only way to defeat the Sandinistas was to&nbsp;...kill, kidnap, rob and torture".<ref>[http://www.williamgbecker.com/chamorroaffidavit.pdf "Case Concerning Military and Paramilitary Activities in and Against Nicaragua (Nicaragua V. United States of America): Affidavit of Edgar Chamarro"] International Court of Justice, 5 September 1985</ref>

Contra leader [[Adolfo Calero]] denied that his forces deliberately targeted civilians:  "What they call a cooperative is also a troop concentration full of armed people. We are not killing civilians. We are fighting armed people and returning fire when fire is directed at us."<ref>''The New York Times'', 23 November 1984.</ref>

===Controversy===
Several articles were published by U.S. press, including by ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' and ''[[The New Republic]]'', accusing Americas Watch and other bodies of ideological bias and unreliable reporting. The articles alleged that Americas Watch gave too much credence to alleged Contra abuses and systematically tried to discredit Nicaraguan human rights groups such as the [[Permanent Commission on Human Rights]], which blamed the most human rights abuses on the Sandinistas.<ref>''[[The New Republic]]'', 20 January 1986; ''[[The New Republic]]'', 22 August 1988; ''[[The National Interest]]'', Spring 1990.</ref>

In 1985, ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' reported:
{{blockquote|Three weeks ago, Americas Watch issued a report on human rights abuses in Nicaragua. One member of the Permanent Commission for Human Rights commented on the Americas Watch report and its chief investigator [[Juan E. Méndez|Juan Mendez]]: "The Sandinistas are laying the groundwork for a totalitarian society here and yet all Mendez wanted to hear about were abuses by the contras. How can we get people in the U.S. to see what's happening here when so many of the groups who come down are pro-Sandinista?"<ref>David Asman, "Despair and fear in Managua", ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', 25 March 1985.</ref>}}

[[Human Rights Watch]], the umbrella organization of Americas Watch, replied to these allegations: "Almost invariably, U.S. pronouncements on human rights exaggerated and distorted the real human rights violations of the Sandinista regime, and exculpated those of the U.S.-supported insurgents, known as the contras&nbsp;... The Bush administration is responsible for these abuses, not only because the contras are, for all practical purposes, a U.S. force, but also because the Bush administration has continued to minimize and deny these violations, and has refused to investigate them seriously."<ref name="NICARAGUA"/>