First U.S. Troops Return From Panama

PANAMA CITY, Panama--As the first elements of the U.S. invasionary force withdrew, Panama's new president said the Vatican should hand Manuel Antonio Noriega over to the United States because his country is not yet capable of trying the ousted general.

A church official said it was up to Noriega to decide when to leave the Vatican embassy, where he sought refuge Christmas Eve.

Two artillery batteries from Fort Ord, Calif.--a total of 141 soldiers--were pulled out Monday, said White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater. One planeload of troops arrived at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio late Monday.

The rest of the 14,000 troops sent in for the Dec. 20 invasion that toppled Noriega will probably leave "on a piecemeal basis," Fitzwater said. He did not specify when that might occur.

"The president is glad to see some of the troops coming home and hopes the rest can leave as soon as possible," Fitzwater said. The 12,000 troops permanently assigned to Panama would remain.

Twenty-three U.S. servicemen were killed in the operation and 322 wounded. Among Panamanians, 297 soldiers and some 300 civilians were killed, according to the U.S. military.

Meanwhile, 20 American diplomats expelled by Nicaragua in retaliation for a U.S. troop search of the residence of that country's ambassador to Panama left Managua on Monday night.

Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government on Friday gave the diplomats 72 hours to leave the country and ordered the U.S. Embassy support staff cut from 320 employees to 100.

The United States apologized for the incident, saying the troops were unaware the home was a diplomatic residence when they entered it--over the protests of Ambassador Antenor Ferrey--to search for weapons. President Bush said it was a "screw-up" but questioned what the numerous weapons found by troops were doing in the home.

In the latest round over Noriega's fate, President Guillermo Endara said the stalemate could end if the Vatican and the papal nuncio "say once and for all that Noriega doesn't deserve to be sheltered in the house of God, that he is a common criminal of the worst kind and should abandon the sacred place."

Noriega is charged with drug trafficking in the United States, but Endara's attorney general said Sunday that Panama's new government was preparing murder charges against Noriega.

The move appeared to lay the groundwork for the mission to release Noriega him to the Panamanian government.

But Endara said Monday that Panama does not have a prison secure enough to hold Noriega. He acknowledged that once outside the embassy, the general would be captured by U.S. troops surrounding the mission.

"Only after the American authorities are done...can we have the opportunity to extradite him to Panama and make him pay in Panama for the crimes and offenses he has committed here in Panama," Endara said after a New Year's Day Mass. "But for the moment, we can't do it."

Endara, elected last May in balloting nullified by Noriega, is still in the early stages of establishing a government.

Archbishop Marcos McGrath said Noriega would have a fair trial and greater personal security if he went to the United States, but said, "He will have to leave by his own decision.

"He will have to weigh his choices and come up with that which is the least disagreeable," McGrath said in an interview. Vatican officials have said they were urging Noriega to leave of his own accord.