美国国会将要决定是否给予尼加拉瓜反政府组织Contras更多的经济援助。我是帮助尼加拉瓜政府说话的代表团成员。这个代表团中最重要的成员是约翰·麦卡夫神父。美国方面的首席是雷蒙德·西茨（那时候他是大使馆的第二号人物，后来成为大使）。神父麦卡夫说：“先生, 我是尼加拉瓜北部教区的负责人。我的教区居民区建造了一所学校，一个健康中心，一个文化中心。我们平静地生活着。几个月前, Contras的军事力量袭击了教区。他们摧毁了所有的一切: 学校、健康中心、文化中心。他们以最残忍的方式强奸护士和教师，勒死医生。他们以魔鬼的方式行事。我们请求美国政府撤回对这些令人震惊的恐怖活动的经费。”
The United States Congress was about to decide whether to give more money to the Contras in their campaign against the state of Nicaragua. I was a member of a delegation speaking on behalf of Nicaragua but the most important member of this delegation was a Father John Metcalf. The leader of the US body was Raymond Seitz (then number two to the ambassador, later ambassador himself). Father Metcalf said, “Sir, I am in charge of a parish in the north of Nicaragua. My parishioners built a school, a health centre, a cultural centre. We have lived in peace. A few months ago a Contra force attacked the parish. They destroyed everything: the school, the health centre, the cultural centre. They raped nurses and teachers, slaughtered doctors, in the most brutal manner. They behaved like savages. Please demand that the US government withdraw its support from this shocking terrorist activity.”
雷蒙德·西茨有很好的声誉，他是个理性的、负责的并且非常老练的人。他在外交圈子内十分受尊敬。他听着，停顿，然后带着沉重回答。“神父，”他说，“让我告诉你一些事情。在战争中，无辜的人总是承受苦难。”一片冻结住的寂静。我们盯着他。他一动没动。
Raymond Seitz had a very good reputation as a rational, responsible and highly sophisticated man. He was greatly respected in diplomatic circles. He listened, paused and then spoke with some gravity. “Father,” he said, “let me tell you something. In war, innocent people always suffer.” There was a frozen silence. We stared at him. He did not flinch.
无辜的人们, 确实是, 总是承受苦难。
Innocent people, indeed, always suffer.
后来有人说：“但是在这里，‘无辜的人们’是被你的政府所资助的残忍无比的屠杀行为的牺牲品，而且这样的事情只是众多之一。如果国会给予Contras更多的钱，更多这类残忍的事情就会继续发生。是不是这样呢? 那你的政府是否因支持在一个主权国家中实施谋杀和毁坏行为而有罪呢?”
Finally somebody said, “But in this case ‘innocent people’ were the victims of a gruesome atrocity subsidised by your government, one among many. If Congress allows the Contras more money further atrocities of this kind will take place. Is this not the case? Is your government not therefore guilty of supporting acts of murder and destruction upon the citizens of a sovereign state?”
西茨沉着冷静地说:“我不同意这些陈述的事实支持你的观点。”
Seitz was imperturbable. “I don’t agree that the facts as presented support your assertions,” he said.
我们离开大使馆的时候，一个美国工作人员告诉我他喜欢我的戏剧，我没有搭理他。
As we were leaving the Embassy a US aide told me that he enjoyed my plays. I did not reply.
我应该提醒你，在那个时候，里根总统说过这样的话:“这些Contras在道德上等同于我们的建国元勋。”
I should remind you that at the time President Reagan made the following statement, “The Contras are the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers.”
美国政府在尼加拉瓜支持残忍的索摩查独裁政府长达40多年。尼加拉瓜人民在桑迪尼斯塔斯的领导下于1979年推翻了这个政权，这是令人震惊的民众革命。
The United States supported the brutal Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua for over 40 years. The Nicaraguan people, led by the Sandinistas, overthrew this regime in 1979, a breathtaking popular revolution.
桑迪尼斯塔斯不是完美的政府，他们存在着自以为是的倾向，而且在他们的政治纲领中有些互相矛盾的成分。但他们具有理性和智慧，并且讲求文明。他们试图建立稳定的、自尊的、多元化的社会，死刑被彻底废除，成千上万穷困的农民被从死亡线上拯救回来，10多万个家庭获得了土地所有权，2000所学校被建立起来。一场相当有效的扫盲运动使国家的文盲者降到低于1/7。免费教育和免费社会保健服务被建立起来。婴儿死亡率降低了1/3，小儿麻痹症被根除了。
The Sandinistas weren’t perfect. They possessed their fair share of arrogance and their political philosophy contained a number of contradictory elements. But they were intelligent, rational and civilised. They set out to establish a stable, decent, pluralistic society. The death penalty was abolished. Hundreds of thousands of poverty-stricken peasants were brought back from the dead. Over 100,000 families were given title to land. Two thousand schools were built. A quite remarkable literacy campaign reduced illiteracy in the country to less than one seventh. Free education was established and a free health service. Infant mortality was reduced by a third. Polio was eradicated.
美国指责这些成就是出于马克思主义或列宁主义的颠覆。按照美国政府的观点，一个危险的榜样被树立起来了。如果尼加拉瓜被允许建立基本的社会规范和经济正义；如果这里被允许提高健康保健和教育标准，实现社会团结和民族自尊，邻国就会问同样的问题并做同样的事情。当然在这个时候萨尔瓦多正在激烈抵制这种现状。
The United States denounced these achievements as Marxist/Leninist subversion. In the view of the US government, a dangerous example was being set. If Nicaragua was allowed to establish basic norms of social and economic justice, if it was allowed to raise the standards of health care and education and achieve social unity and national self respect, neighbouring countries would ask the same questions and do the same things. There was of course at the time fierce resistance to the status quo in El Salvador.
我刚说到过我们周围的“色彩缤纷的谎言”。里根总统经常把尼加拉瓜描述为“极权主义者的地牢”。媒介也是这样报道的，英国政府当然也是如此，以准确和公平的方式评论着。但是事实上在桑迪尼斯塔斯政府下，那里没有任何关于杀手小队的记录；没有用酷刑的记录；没有有计划、有步骤的或官方军队的暴行记录。在尼加拉瓜没有神职人员被谋杀，事实上有三个神父在政府中供职，政府中还有两个耶稣会会士和一个（天主教）马利诺外方传教会的传教士。极权主义者的地牢其实在隔壁，在萨尔瓦多和危地马拉。美国在1954年将危地马拉民主选举的政府摧毁，估计有超过20万人成为继之的军事独裁的受害者。
I spoke earlier about “a tapestry of lies” which surrounds us. President Reagan commonly described Nicaragua as a “totalitarian dungeon”. This was taken generally by the media, and certainly by the British government, as accurate and fair comment. But there was in fact no record of death squads under the Sandinistas government. There was no record of torture. There was no record of systematic or official military brutality. No priests were ever murdered in Nicaragua. There were in fact three priests in the government, two Jesuits and a Maryknoll missionary. The totalitarian dungeons were actually next door, in El Salvador and Guatemala. The United States had brought down the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954 and it is estimated that over 200,000 people had been victims of successive military dictatorships.
1989年在圣萨尔多瓦中美洲大学，有6名世界上最杰出的耶稣会会士被一大群阿尔卡特尔营的人残忍地杀害。这群人是在美国佐治亚州的本宁要害被训练出来的。这些非常勇敢的大主教是在做弥撒的时候被刺杀的，估计有75000人死于非命。为何他们被杀死？他们被杀死是因为他们相信更好的生活是可能并应该被实现的。这种信念立即使得他们被列为共产主义分子，他们死掉是因为他们胆敢对现状，对无尽的贫困、疾病、迫害和压迫提出质疑，而这本是他们与生俱来的权利。
