Aid From Carlsbad Group Furthers Cause of Contras

It was not the best of spots for some dental work, but David Courson and other members of the Christian Emergency Relief Team knew it had to be done.

The group had hunkered down in a battle-tattered Nicaraguan village on the shores of a murky lagoon just a two-hour walk from an enemy Sandinista base when their contra guide, a normally stoical fellow named Aubrey, began screaming in pain from a cracked molar.

A simple enough procedure. The dentist traveling with Courson’s outfit quieted Aubrey with a shot of local anesthetic and laid him in a dugout canoe. While other members of the group held the young man down, the dentist yanked out the offending tooth.

As Aubrey mumbled thanks, someone asked the contra soldier what he would have done had the tooth acted up at a more typical time, when the closest dentist would have been days away in the bush.

“I would just get my knife out and start working on it,” he replied.

Openly Supportive

Such tales are the driving force behind the Christian Emergency Relief Team, a Carlsbad-based group that has provided humanitarian aid to refugees along the war-torn border of Nicaragua and Honduras since 1984.

Operating on a shoestring budget, Courson’s organization has sponsored 15 trips into the troubled region by volunteer teams ranging from four to a dozen members, all of them everyday folks drawn from throughout the United States.

Doctors and high school principals, housewives and pastors, the volunteers have delivered everything from food and medicine to more than 100,000 pounds of “Shoe Boxes for Liberty”--small, unadorned packages that have been stuffed by donors with everyday essentials such as soap, toothbrushes or needle and thread.

Along the way, however, the Christian Emergency Relief Team has engendered a share of controversy. Many private groups providing humanitarian aid in Central America attempt to avoid taking sides in military and political disputes, but Courson has done little to hide his support for the contra rebels battling the Marxist regime of Nicaragua.

Armed Escorts

Courson says his nonprofit organization does not discriminate while handing out aid, but the team typically travels with armed contra guards as escorts, has made forays into Nicaragua with contra patrols and late last year trained members of a rebel faction in paramedic skills.

Such a firm ideological stance miffs some Christian groups, who worry that the Christian Emergency Relief Team could be stepping over the line between offering humanitarian relief and helping to fuel a war effort. Noting that the contras have been tagged with human-rights violations, these critics contend that Courson and his relief team, by helping the rebels in even the smallest of ways, are in effect condoning such reported atrocities.

Moreover, though some pro-Sandinista groups in the United States have seen their efforts to aid the Nicaraguan government stymied by harassment and interference from U.S. officials, Courson’s outfit has received, if anything, tacit support from federal authorities.

Courson is quick to note that the organization has received no direct monetary assistance from the private contra-support network established by embattled Lt. Col. Oliver North, the fired National Security Council official now under fire in Washington for his role in an effort to divert funds to the rebels from the sale of arms to Iran.

Free Plane Ride

But Courson acknowledges that federal officials have helped ease potential roadblocks. “We’re not hindered,” said Courson, a lanky, bespectacled man with the even-tempered look of an accountant. “They could deny visas or make it difficult for us to get cargo in and out. They’ve certainly done nothing to hurt us.”

Some government agencies have even gone further. In 1984, for example, the Texas Air National Guard gave members of Courson’s team a free plane ride back into the United States as a gesture of friendship.

Federal officials say the group is not breaking any laws so long as its efforts remain strictly humanitarian.

“Our position is that it’s the policy of both the Administration and the Congress to support the Nicaraguan resistance,” said a State Department official, who asked that his name not be used. “We just encourage citizens to make sure that whatever they do is in conformity with the law.”

Courson is considered by some government officials to be a knowledgeable participant in the effort to aid refugees along the border region. He spoke at a White House briefing for a national religious broadcasters group last year, a gathering that was kicked off by a talk by North, then a deputy director at the NSC.

Last May, President Reagan himself sent a telegram to Courson offering thanks for his efforts in Central America, saying, “Your efforts to relieve the sufferings of the refugees are in the highest traditions of Christianity and of the American spirit of neighborliness.”

Courson says the group’s campaign springs from both the personal and religious. A Vietnam veteran, Courson feels the Sandinista government must be defeated by the contras to avoid a drawn-out conflict that might ultimately cost the lives of numerous U.S. soldiers. Moreover, he sees the Sandinistas as an evil ruling body thwarting the basic freedoms of speech and religion for the Nicaraguans.

“The posture of our ministry is that we are providing assistance to our suffering brothers and sisters in Christ,” Courson said during a recent interview. “If they happen to be fighting against a Godless regime, then we are committed to assisting them with humanitarian aid.”

In addition, by taking everyday citizens to a Central American hot spot, Courson says, he is opening the eyes of the ill-informed as to the true story of the contra conflict, a story he contends is often inaccurately portrayed in U.S. newspapers and TV newscasts.

First-Hand Look

“We let them see the situation first-hand and let them draw their own conclusions,” he said.

Courson established the Christian Emergency Relief Team in 1974, when he and other volunteers traveled to Central America to help in the wake of Hurricane Fifi.

At the time, Courson was minister of a nondenominational church in San Jose and served as a police pastor. In 1979, he was tapped to run the National Christian Fellowship, a group that sponsors lunch-time Bible study groups in more than 1,500 government buildings in cities across the country. Courson moved to Carlsbad to run the organization and brought the relief team concept with him.

Today, the group is one of several conservative Christian relief organizations operating along the border of Nicaragua and Honduras, among them an outfit run by television evangelist Pat Robertson. Courson’s team is one of the smaller relief efforts in the area and, in general, operates in relative anonymity.

With its headquarters in a cramped second-story office above the trendy cafes and boutiques of downtown Carlsbad, the Christian Emergency Relief Team is run on a $104,000 annual budget by two paid employees--Courson and his second-in-command, Gary Becks, a Vietnam veteran and longtime San Bernardino County firefighter who came aboard late last year.

The bulk of the supplies that are donated to the group are stored in a large semi-truck trailer in the parking lot of a Carlsbad church. The group also has erected a 2,700-square-foot warehouse in Honduras alongside a 3,000-foot runway.

Courson and Becks, who must raise their own $2,600 monthly salaries through contributions, spend much of their time traveling around the United States, giving about 300 speeches a year to Rotary clubs, the Kiwanis, and just about anyone who will listen to their tales from the border region and their pleas for help.

But every month or two, the pair travel on a 10-day good-will mission to the Nicaragua-Honduras border with a team of volunteers, who must each pay the $1,200 cost for air fare and other expenses. Every participant carries a backpack and two empty suitcases, which are filled with the shoe boxes and other supplies.

No Rambos

The team members rendezvous at the American point of departure--usually Miami, New Orleans or Houston--for the flight to Honduras. Once in the Central American country, the group travels by small plane to the border region, then to the various refugee camps by dugout canoe or boat along the waterways and swamps that form the backbone for travel.

It is not an easy experience. Mosquitos run rampant, torrential rains sometimes make the ground nearly unpassable, and various jungle ailments can plague outsiders.

“We try to weed out the would-be Rambos, the Indiana Jones types trying to seek adventure,” Courson said. “It’s not fun. You have to be led by your heart, not a sense of adventure.”

Once in the refugee camps, the team members set up shop amid the squalid, thatch-roofed huts, distributing the shoe boxes, administering medical assistance to those in need and generally helping out.

Typically, Courson and the other members also distribute some of the more than 1,200 pairs of hiking boots a shoe company donated to the group. Becks likes to give the refugees copies of books and American trade publications, which he feels reinforce the idea of basic freedoms. The group also often distributes portable record players made of cardboard that can be spun by hand to play religious albums in the native language.

The group’s efforts are focused among the dozens of villages and camps along the southeastern edge of Honduras, which house the more than 30,000 refugees who fled their homeland after the Sandinistas came to power in 1979.

Most of those refugees are Miskito Indians, a highly religious and fiercely independent band that has long been distrustful of the Nicaraguan government in Managua.

When the Sandinistas took control, they replaced local authorities in the Miskito homelands with army officers, sent in Cuban doctors and teachers, nationalized small sawmills and put down protests over such changes with harsh repression.

When thousands of Miskitos rebelled, the government evacuated the villages and sent residents to live in resettlement camps within Nicaragua. Other Miskitos fled to Honduras, some of them forming bands that have fought in the contra struggle.

Change in Policy

In 1984, Sandinista authorities admitted their “errors” and began studying the idea of autonomy for the region. Since then, the government has begun returning Miskitos to their villages from the camps, some refugees have come back from Honduras, and other Indians were persuaded to abandon their armed struggle.

Nonetheless, many people remain in the camps, unable to find work while living off fish from the rivers and food staples given out by the United Nations and other relief organizations. These are the people that Courson and his group try to help.

The Christian Emergency Relief Team volunteers say they get as much out of the experience as they are able to give.

“The life-changing thing about it is to be in direct contact with people who were dying,” said the Rev. Daniel Hong, a Baptist minister in Mission Viejo. “We were able to change that course by giving them medicine, bringing vitamins, pains killers. Bringing cloths. Putting shoes on their feet. Bringing boots and books and seeds, things that are just basic to survival.

“Seeing those people who have nothing take those things and use them, well, you just can’t believe the thrill.”

Dean Rust, a dentist from Pennsylvania who accompanied Courson on a recent expedition, agreed.

“It’s a grueling trip and you come back really tired,” Rust said. “But anything you accomplish, they’re really grateful. That is the satisfaction you get. They can’t call down the street to the dentist when a tooth starts hurting. They have to wait for us to show up. You’re the main man for them.”

Despite the group’s efforts, Courson has attracted some critics.

Dennis Marker, director of communications at Sojourners magazine, a Washington, D.C.-based, nondenominational Christian publication, said groups like the Christian Emergency Relief Team should take greater care to insure that the humanitarian aid they dispense does not trickle to the contra cause.

‘Contras Not . . . God’

“It has been documented that the contras have laid land mines along civilian roads, bombed health clinics, burned down schools and attacked farms,” Marker said. “Any group that openly helps the contras is in fact helping a group that has been proven to use terrorist tactics. I don’t think any Christian group can justify that.”

Moreover, Marker said, he takes exception to using the Bible as justification for taking sides on the battlefield. The Christian way, he contends, is to remain unbiased, condemning all wars.

“I don’t read in the Bible that the Nicaraguan government is the devil,” Marker said. “And I have too much evidence to tell me the contras are not the manifestation of God. . . . If you’re giving humanitarian aid to the attackers and not the attacked, that does not seem particularly Christian.”

Terence Martin, a senior director for the Latin America and Caribbean Office of Catholic Relief Services, said relief groups that take sides in a conflict risk undermining their very efforts because individuals or local governments who do not share a similar ideology could pose problems.

“It’s conceivable that they could be nonpartisan while traveling with an armed escort,” said Martin, who is not familiar with Courson’s group. “But it’s something that’s difficult to do and requires an articulated and sustained commitment to neutrality.”

Nicarguan officials have also blasted the humanitarian efforts of groups such as the Christian Emergency Relief Team.

“In a way, they’re providing material assistance to the contras,” said Martin Vega, a counselor with the Nicarguan embassy in Washington. “Obviously, they’re doing it with a political intent. And they’re playing part and parcel into the strategy of the American administration.”

Courson acknowledges that his group’s stance poses a target for criticism, but counters that the help they provide is focused at people, not a military campaign. It is often difficult, he noted, to differentiate between a civilian refugee and a contra fighter.

“We make no apology to those who are critics,” Courson said. “We provide strictly humanitarian aid. We’re not involved in any violation of United States law. We do not assist in any way in procuring or transportation of weapons.”

Courson said he also “makes no apology for our work with the contras.” The rebel forces, he said, “are no angels” and have been found in violation of basic human rights, but to “a far lesser extent than the Sandinistas.”

The contras are used as escorts primarily because they know the lay of the land and can get the relief teams into and out of an area quickly, Courson said.

Nonetheless, he admitted that traveling with the rebels in the region, especially during forays to villages inside Nicaragua, does pose a danger. Who knows, he said, when a Sandinista patrol boat might pull up or a government helicopter might fly overhead and open fire.

“We try to be responsible in evaluating the risk,” Courson said. “Still, there’s not a time when I leave home and wonder if it’s worth it, wonder if I’ll be coming back to knock on someone’s door and say, ‘Sorry ma’am, your husband has been killed.’ ”