Peace Team Captured in Nicaragua : Contras Blamed for Seizing 31 Americans, 16 Journalists

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Anti-Sandinista rebels today captured 31 U.S. peace activists and 16 journalists sailing down the San Juan River on the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, a group spokeswoman said.

They were forced ashore by three armed men at Las Cruces in Costa Rica, spokeswoman Sharon Hostetler said. No one was injured.

She said representatives of the group, the “Christian Assn. for Peace,” had been in radio contact when they were taken prisoner.

The group’s radio operator had said he had heard shots but did not say the group had been fired on, Hostetler said.

The radio then went dead but about three hours later the operator made contact again. “We are among brothers. They are treating us well and no one has been injured,” she quoted him as saying.

Sixteen journalists were with the group, including staff of ABC and NBC television and representatives of the Associated Press, United Press International and Reuters.

The so-called “fleet of peace” began its journey Tuesday despite warnings from rebels of the Revolutionary Democratic Alliance (ARDE) that they would attack it.

An ARDE spokesman in the Costa Rican capital, San Jose, said he had no immediate information on the group.

The 31 Americans, who were unarmed and had no escort, had been staging a demonstration for peace on the tense border, which has seen recent clashes between the Nicaraguan army and ARDE. ARDE maintains bases along the river.

The U.S. group has also staged demonstrations along the equally tense northern border with Honduras where guerrillas of the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan Democratic Front (FDN) are based.