Law Prof Prosecutes U.S. at World Court

Abram Chayes '43 is no stranger to the arena of international legal disputes; in fact, he once headed the Department of State's legal advisory team. But for the 63-year-old Frank furter Professor of Law, prosecuting his country before the World Court was something new.

Chayes returned this week from The Hague, Netherlands, where he and five others completed arguing the case that U.S support for the rebel contras in Nicaragua violates international law. The U.S. boycotted the proceedings, whose verdict should arrive in several months.

The team, comprised of another U.S lawyer, together with the Nicaraguan ambassador to the Netherlands and an attorney each from England, France and Nicaragua presented five witnesses and an affidavit from Edgar Chamorro, a former contra leader.

Chamorro wrote that the CIA directed the rebel leaders' quest for Congressional funding, wrote their speeches and policy, and forced them to join with members of the former Nicaraguan dictator Gen. Anastasio Somoza's National Guard. The witnesses testified about reported contra atrocities and gave estimates of the damage to and legitimacy of the Nicaraguan government.

Perhaps the most damning evidence, Chayes said in a recent interview, was given by David MacMichael, the former CIA agent whose job it was to monitor the flow of arms from Nicaragua to the El Salvador rebels between 1981 and 1983.

MacMichael's assertion that the U.S. had no evidence of any such transfer during that time was crucial to the case, Chayes said, because the U.S. used that link to legitimize its efforts to destabilize portions of the state, and a 400-foot radio tower was toppled in Framingham.

Navy officials reported the forward mast broke on the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned warship in the United States, which is docked in Charlestown