The United States plans to send cash payments to Contra rebels inside Nicaragua that will enable them to buy food locally while a dispute over resettlement keeps them from receiving food and other supplies, an administration official says. The payments will range between 50 cents and $1 a day for thousands of Contra fighters _ ``enough to keep body and soul together,'' according to the official, who spoke Monday on the condition that he not be identified. A final decision will be made later in the week by Alan Woods, administrator of the Agency for International Development, the official said. After the Contras and Nicaragua's leftist government signed a temporary truce on March 23, Congress approved a $47.9 million humanitarian aid package for the rebels, consistent with a provision in the truce agreement. The legislation permits deliveries of food, clothing, shelter and medical supplies and medical care for children who are war victims. The agreement specified that the rebels receive the aid after resettling in seven mutually agreed cease-fire zones. However, no food or other supplies have been sent inside Nicaragua because a dispute over ground rules within the zones has prevented the resettlement from taking place. This has left some Contra units with acute food shortages. Air drops have been ruled out because of fear that Sandinista fighters might shoot down the planes used to transport the food. At the time of the truce, there were an estimated 12,000 Contras inside Nicaragua but many have fled into Honduras in search of food. The monthly cost of the payments is expected to be between $60,000 to $450,000, depending on availability of Contra couriers based in Honduras to deliver the cash and the number of rebels inside Nicaragua that can be reached at any given time. Most of the payments will be in cordobas, Nicaragua's currency. In addition, AID has earmarked more than $300,000 per month in family assistance payments to rebels with technical skills. Part of the funds are being assigned to resistance personnel who work at Contra offices in Miami. Nicaraguan authorities maintain that any humanitarian assistance sent to the Contras without prior inspection by an officially designated verification commission would be illegal under the truce agreement. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has objected vigorously to an interim program under which U.S.-sponsored aid is being sent by truck or air drop from Tegucigalpa to Contra camps on the Honduran side of the border. The bulk of this aid _ 262 metric tons _ has been sent by truck, the official said. The administration has denied Ortega's claims that the shipments have contained lethal equipment, insisting that the deliveries have received prior inspection from Honduran church officials. The cease-fire began on April 1 and is schedued to last for 60 days. During this period, the Sandinistas and the Contras are to negotiate terms for a permanent cease-fire. But little progress has been made in the talks.
