NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/8618

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Subject: El Salvador Accords Watch
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/** reg.elsalvador: 126.0 **/
** Topic: el sal. accords watch **
** Written  3:17 pm  Nov 19, 1992 by cispesnatl in cdp:reg.elsalvador **

Produced by the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El
Salvador (CISPES)

Number 9             December 1, 1992

A Countdown for Peace

     After weeks of escalating tension, the Salvadoran government
and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) signed a
timetable on November 7 for the removal of over 100 military
officers implicated in human rights abuses, and for the
implementation of the remainder of the outstanding peace accords
(see box, page 2).  According to the agreement, the majority of the
outstanding accords will be implemented by December 15, and the
last contingent of FMLN combatants will disarm and rejoin civilian
society on that date.  Currently, 40% of the FMLN's troops remain
in their encampments, with 20% now slated to disarm on November 20,
and the remainder on December 15.
     Controversy centered around the implementation of the report
issued by the three-person Ad Hoc Commission, which reviewed the
records of officers and drafted the list of those to be dismissed.
Under increasing pressure from the Army, President Alfredo
Cristiani rejected in October an earlier U.N. proposal for revising
accords deadlines.  According to information leaked to the press,
the report, which is not public, names over 100 top officers for
removal from the Army or transfers to other positions.  Minister of
Defense Rene Emilio Ponce and Vice Minister of Defense Juan Orlando
Zepeda are reportedly among those named.
     According to the new calendar, by November 30 Cristiani will
reportedly present the U.N. with his "executive decision" on the Ad
Hoc Commission recommendations--including the officers to be
removed, and the process for their removal.  As a face-saving
measure for the military, most of the dismissals will be
incorporated into the regular year-end "general order" of retiring
officers, which also includes roughly 200 officers leaving for
other reasons besides inclusion on the Ad Hoc list.  The Secretary
General will then give a written guarantee to the FMLN that all of
the officers named by the Ad Hoc Commission are included on
Cristiani's list of officers to retire in the "general order."  the
"general order" list will be released publicly on December 31, and
implemented a week later.  Another group of 40 officers will be
transferred to other positions within the Army.
     The revision of the accords calendar, the third since the
agreements were signed, appears to have averted an immediate
crisis.  But it remains unclear whether the Army will accept the
new deadlines, and the peace process will remain in a "state of
emergency" at least until mid January.

Two Weeks of Tension

     The period leading up to the signing of the new agreements was
the most delicate in the entire peace process.  After the report
was given to President Alfredo Cristiani and the U.N., the Army and
the right-wing launched a massive pressure campaign aimed at
preventing Cristiani from carrying out the report's
recommendations.  Clandestine right wing groups took out a series
of newspaper advertisements condemning the U.N. and calling on
Cristiani not to comply, while the Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez
Brigade, a notorious death squad, issued a communique threatening
the lives of top FMLN leaders and U.N. personnel.  Opposition
political parties discovered and publicized a series of meetings
between Army officials and wealthy landowners, business leaders,
and conservative politicians.
     Ad Hoc Commission member Eduardo Molina told reporters in
Washington, DC that there had been three coup attempts in El
Salvador in recent weeks, adding that the head of the U.S. Southern
Command and Assistant Secretary of State Bernard Aronson had
intervened to dissuade the Army from pursuing its intentions.
     In response to pressure from the right, Cristiani balked at
implementing the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Commission.  As a
result, the conditions did not exist for the FMLN to demobilize the
remainder of its combatants on October 31, as stipulated in the
original accords calendar.  Fearing a collapse of the peace
process, U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali sent his
assistant Alvaro De Soto and Secretary Adjunct for Peacekeeping
Missions Marrack Goulding to El Salvador.
     After meetings with both sides, the U.N. representatives
formulated a proposal, which was rapidly accepted by the FMLN.
Cristiani hedged, first appearing to indicate that the government
would sign the new agreement, but finally announcing in an October
28 televised address that it would not.  Cristiani's waffling
reflected the intense pressure he was under from the U.N. on one
side, and the Army and the right wing on the other.  Behind the
scenes, Cristiani was negotiating furiously.  He proposed extending
the period for removing officers named in the Ad Hoc report over
the next year, and exempting 14 top officers, including Ponce.
     In the face of what amounted to a flat refusal on Cristiani's
part to implement agreements which form the very heart of the
accords, the U.N., the FMLN, and the international community closed
ranks to push Cristiani to comply with the peace process.  In what
might have seemed an impossible scenario a year ago, U.S. Assistant
Secretary of State for Inter American Affairs Bernard Aronson
lobbied Cristiani alongside representatives of the FMLN.
Recognizing that his government would lose international support if
he did not comply, Cristiani finally agreed to a slightly revised
version of the U.N.'s proposal.
     The outcome was an important victory for the peace process,
and a major defeat for the Army, which had sought to keep Cristiani
securely in the right wing camp.  In accepting the U.N. proposal,
Cristiani cast his lot with the U.N. and the peace process,
isolating the extremists.

A Delicate Phase

     The process is now back on track, but it is not yet out of
danger.  The right wing and the Army may have lost a battle, but
they remain both powerful and intransigent.  Top-ranking officers
have indicated that they may not comply if dismissed from their
posts.  "What will I do if I am on the list?  I am going to defend
myself!" Gen. Zepeda told a New York Times reporter.  Echoing the
propaganda circulated in recent weeks by clandestine right wing
groups, Zepeda described the purge of the Army as "the prolongation
of a leftist struggle against the Armed Forces," supported by "mid-
level" officials in the U.N.  "Disgracefully, the majority of the
desks at the United Nations that deal with Latin America are in the
hands of communists," he added.  For his part, Gen. Ponce charged
that "left wing political parties have orchestrated an
international campaign to damage the Armed Forces' prestige."  Even
after the agreement was signed, Ponce stuck to his assertions that
the purge was part of a conspiracy.
     The possibility that the Army may attempt another coup cannot
be ruled out, but there is an even greater danger that the military
and the right wing may launch a "dirty war" against the opposition.
Washington would almost certainly oppose a coup, and El Salvador
would find itself isolated internationally.  A "dirty war," on the
other hand, could destabilize the country and perhaps sabotage the
peace process, while at the same time eliminating key leaders of
the FMLN and other opposition groups.  Diplomatic sources warned
the Washington Post that there may be an escalation in death squad
attacks while the U.S. is distracted by the transition between the
Bush and Clinton administrations.  The sources noted that some of
the most high-profile assassinations of the war were carried out
after the 1980 elections and before Ronald Reagan's inauguration in
1981.
     The current agreements were possible only because pressure
from the U.N. and the international community succeeded in
splitting Cristiani off from the extreme right.  Continued pressure
will be essential in preventing the right wing from taking him
"prisoner" once more, as well as in preventing a coup or a dirty
war.
     Although the situation will remain tense into next year, the
next few weeks will be especially dangerous.  The Army and the
right wing have succeeded in undermining peace accords deadlines in
the past.  This time, it is unlikely that another revision of the
calendar will be possible if deadlines lapse once more.  All of the
agreements in the calendar must be implemented according to
schedule, or they in all probability never will be carried out at
all.  The next fifteen days will determine the shape of the peace
to come.

A Calendar for Peace

     Although the text of the agreements signed on November 7 is
not public, some of the contents were leaked to the press.  The
series of deadlines for the implementation of the Ad Hoc
Commission's recommendations was the most controversial point, but
the agreements include a number of other important deadlines as
well.  Among the most significant are the following; in most cases,
the precise deadline is not public, but falls some time before
December 15.

*  The Atlacatl Battalion, a U.S.-trained counterinsurgency unit
implicated in numerous human rights abuses, will be dismantled by
December 8.  The dissolution of the Atlacatl is a key point both
because the unit was responsible for some of the war's grisliest
crimes--including the massacre of six Jesuit priests and their two
assistants in 1989 and the massacre of up to 1,000 peasants near
the town of El Mozote--but also because the government seemed
intent on keeping the battalion intact.  Although the Atlacatl was
scheduled for demobilization last month, Cristiani publicly
insisted that he would not comply until the FMLN had disarmed all
of its troops.  The dissolution of two other special forces units,
the Atonal Battalion and the Arce Battalion, will take place on
January 8 and February 8, although precise dates are not known.

*  Transfers of land are to continue to FMLN ex-combatants and
civilians living in the former conflict zones, and the process of
verifying the land inventory presented by the FMLN must be
completed.  The first land transfer took place on November 4, but
there are reportedly still problems around the land inventory,  and
funds to purchase the land must still be secured.

*  A permanent site must be found for the National Public Security
Academy, and an admission system must be agreed upon.  Serious
problems have arisen concerning the police academy in recent weeks.
More than 200 cadets at the police academy recently were diagnosed
with cholera, which they apparently contracted from contaminated
food served at the academy.  Living conditions at the academy are
reportedly abysmal, due to a shortage of funds and the lack of a
permanent site.  Meanwhile, members of the disbanded security
forces have been slipped into the academy at all levels.  The FMLN
has been denouncing the practice for some time, and on November 6,
Iqbal Riza, head of the U.N. verification mission ONUSAL confirmed
it in a letter to government negotiator Oscar Santamaria.  Riza
complained that, despite repeated requests from the U.N., the
government has failed to provide a list of names of security force
and Army members for use in cross-checking the records of police
academy applicants.

*  The process of legalizing the FMLN as a political party must be
completed.  Just since the signing of the agreements, this process
has already hit a new snag.  Despite protests from opposition
parties, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) refused to grant
legal status to the FMLN, insisting that it could not do so until
24 hours after the FMLN has fully disarmed.  As opposition parties
pointed out, the accords call for the legalization of the FMLN
before the process of disarming former combatants is completed;
thus, the TSE's action clearly violated the agreements.

*  Armed Forces weapons distributed to private citizens must be
collected.  Such arms have been the cause of many deaths and
injuries in recent weeks, through accident, common crime, or death
squad murders.  FMLN Commander Salvador Guerra called on the Army
to begin collecting arms from the "land owners, paramilitary force
members, civilians, and death squads" which it had armed during the
war.  President Cristiani said he expected the process to be
completed by December 8.

*  The National Intelligence Directorate (DNI) must be effectively
dissolved.  The deadline for this point has passed, but the DNI
continues to function.

*  The multi-party peace accords oversight commission COPAZ is
currently working on 10 pieces of peace accords legislation, to be
presented to the Legislative Assembly for a vote.  Among the laws
are presumably the electoral and judicial reforms and new military
doctrine and legislation mandated by the peace accords.

*  On December 15, when the agreements have been implemented, there
will be a symbolic act of reconciliation, to which the FMLN will
invite Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu and U.N. Secretary General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

*  The FMLN will turn in its completed arms inventory on November
30, and will destroy the weapons between December 1 and 15, except
for the heavy weapons, which will not be destroyed until after the
"general order" has been implemented in January and the officers
named in the Ad Hoc Commission report have been removed.




Dirty War Continues Against FMLN

     Death squads continued their campaign of terror against FMLN
leaders and their security personnel last month.  Seen in the
context of the two ambushes targeting FMLN leaders in October (see
Peace Accords Watch #8), the incidents form part of an ominous
pattern.  All of the attacks appear to be aimed at undermining the
peace accords by sowing insecurity and fear, and by attempting to
provoke a response from the FMLN.  Given the Army's unwillingness
to see the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Commission carried out,
more attacks may be forthcoming.

*  On the morning of November 17, the bodyguard for an FMLN
commander was assassinated on a city bus in San Salvador.  Jose
Arnulfo Garcia Gamez was shot twice in the back of the neck at
point blank range.  No type of disturbance or fight was in progress
at the time, ruling out the possibility that Gamez was accidentally
caught in a crossfire.  The assassination followed the publication
in the local media of an inflammatory article by right-wing
columnist Kirio Waldo Salgado, claiming that the FMLN is undergoing
a split, and that FMLN members could be expected to attack and kill
one another.  The government and conservative news outlets have
been propagating the same assertion for several weeks, and FMLN
leaders have repeatedly warned that the accusations are intended as
a smokescreen to cover up killings by the right.

*  Mirtala Lopez, of the FMLN's youth organization, received a
death threat from the Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez brigade on the
night of November 1 or the morning of November 2.  Unknown persons
broke into her home while she was away, searched her work and
personal files, and left a note reading "We did not find you, but
we are going to kill you."  Nothing of value was missing, but files
pertaining to Mirtala's work with the FMLN were missing.
     The attack came in the wake of an October 22 communique from
the Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez brigade, threatening leaders of
the FMLN, the "white pestilence of ONUSAL," and the "plague of
foreign journalists who are invading our country."   In addition,
the communique warned, "all of the national journalists, the
traitorous politicians, the front organizations, and all those who
collaborate with the terrorists and support the accords must await
the consequences of national liberating justice."



El Salvador's Truth Commission vs. the CIA

     Like the Ad Hoc Commission, whose report has generated such
tension in the Army (see page 1), the Truth Commission is a
linchpin in El Salvador's peace process.  The two commissions were
created in accordance with the peace agreements to end the impunity
of military officers implicated in human rights abuses.  The Ad Hoc
Commission, composed of three Salvadorans, was placed in charge of
reviewing the records of military officers, while the Truth
Commission, composed of three foreigners, was responsible for
investigating the gravest human rights abuses committed since 1980.
     The Truth Commission recently ended its information-gathering
phase, and has begun the process of analyzing testimonies.  The
final report, scheduled for release on January 14, is likely to be
as explosive as the Ad Hoc Commission report, but unlike the
earlier document, it must be released publicly.
     Among the cases likely to be covered in the report is the
massacre of up to 1,000 peasants in and around the town of El
Mozote on December 11, 1981 by troops from the Atlacatl Battalion.
Consistent testimonies from survivors quickly convinced the
Catholic Church that a massacre had indeed taken place, but the
Church's repeated requests for an investigation went unheard until
this year.  Backed up by the U.S. Embassy, the government insisted
that casualty figures were greatly exaggerated, and that the
victims were in fact FMLN combatants who died in a firefight.  But
when international forensic experts began to exhume the bodies this
year, the first group of skeletons they unearthed were those of
children.  The remains of the young victims were found in the
village parish house, precisely where survivors indicated they had
been herded together and killed.  Their skulls were smashed and
some bore signs of stab wounds, bearing out witnesses' testimonies
that the children had been clubbed and hacked to death.
     Since the U.S. military advised the Salvadoran Army throughout
the war and U.S. agencies possess abundant documentation, the Truth
Commission requested information from the State Department, the
Pentagon, and the CIA.  According to Truth Commission member Thomas
Buergenthal, a U.S. law professor, holocaust survivor, and Honorary
President of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, the State
Department released 7,000 pages of documentation only after
pressure from Congress.  The CIA and the Pentagon, Buergenthal told
the Miami Herald, are not cooperating.  In particular, the Truth
Commission sought a 1981 Pentagon study known as the "Woerner
Report," which assessed Salvadoran military strategy and capacity,
and a CIA study from the mid-eighties on the death squads and
paramilitary groups.
     Buergenthal condemned the CIA and the Pentagon and the CIA for
failing to provide information "essential" for clarifying human
rights abuses.  "Although some want to forget the past, there are
atrocities like the El Mozote massacre that the people demand be
clarified," he concluded.


Defend the Peace Accords!

     The days between now and December 15 are critical to the
successful implementation of the of El Salvador's peace accords.
You can do your part to help protect the peace process by:

*  Signing and contributing toward an advertisement to be placed in
newspapers in El Salvador on December 15.  Advertisements signed by
U.S. citizens have a strong impact in El Salvador, serving notice
to the government that public opinion in the U.S. favors peace.
For a copy of the text, or for more details, call Angelia Smith at
the CISPES National Office, 202-265-0890.

*  Call your Congressperson and ask him/her to sign on to the
latest Congressional Dear Colleague letter on El Salvador.  Call
your CISPES Regional Office or the National Office for details (see
box at right for numbers).

*  Support the 30 Day Emergency Campaign to Support the Peace
Accords.  You can help by writing letters to the editor on the
situation in El Salvador, and participating in local protest and
visibility actions on December 2, 10, or 11.  Call your Regional
Office or the National Office for details (see box at right for
numbers).




Produced nationally by the Committee in Solidarity with the People
of El Salvador (CISPES)
PO Box 12156
Washington, D.C. 20005
[phone].

CISPES is a national organization with chapters in more than 60
cities around the country, and regional offices in major cities:

Western States Regional Office
3181 Mission St., Box 20
San Francisco, CA 94110
415-648-6520

Midwest Regional Office
3411 Diversey Ave.
Chicago, IL, 60647
312-227-2587

New England Regional Office
42 Seaverns Ave.
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
617-524-1166

Mid-Atlantic Regional Office
41 Union Sq. West, Rm. 220
New York, NY, 10003
212-229-1290


El Salvador Peace Accords Watch is published on the first of each
month.

Sources:  Salpress News Agency, El Rescate Human Rights Department,
New York Times, Washington Post, Miami Herald, FMLN documents.

** End of text from cdp:reg.elsalvador **