NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #26/NN_1992_26.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/8292

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From: Andrew Lang <[e-mail]>
Subject: Testimony El Salvador
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/* Written  9:24 am  Nov 10, 1992 by [e-mail] in igc:carnet.alerts */
/* ---------- "Testimony El Salvador" ---------- */
EL SALVADOR - RECONCILIATION, MASSACRES AND JUSTICE

The Peace Process moves slowly forward in El Salvador. Under the
United Nations supervision, the government of El Salvador must turn
over vast amounts of land to former guerilla fighters and farmers
(campesinos), revise electoral rules, purge the armed forces of
officers charged with human rights abuses (according to the
findings of the Ad Hoc Commission), dismantle several security
forces units and significantly reduce the armed forces by the end
of this month.

On many occassions, agreement deadlines have not been met:
     "There is responsilibity on both sides [the government and the
     FMLN] for not meeting the agreements, but more on the
     government's side. ... What's delaying things most is the
     government's failure to turn over the land, the revision of
     the electoral code and other parts of the treaty that have
     been delayed". (Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas, Miami
     Herald, 17/10/92)

THE 'EL MOZOTE' EXHUMATIONS
Another crucial aspect of the process of reconciliation is the work
of the "Truth Commission" that is investigating the major crimes of
the past 12 years. How will hundreds of thousands of Salvadoran
victims deal with their suffering and learn to have faith and hope
in the peace process if crimes of the past go un-judged, un-
sanctioned?, if the criminals are allowed to walk freely? How will
a democracy be possible, with so many undealt with crimes?

If there were one crime that characterizes best the atrocities and
impunity of the Armed Forces, it could be the El Mozote Massacre.
This crime was followed by a massive cover-up, on the parts of the
Salvadoran government and military, on the part of the United
States government (trainer, supplier and financier of the
Salvadoran armed and police forces throughout the entire war) and
on the part of the salvadoran and international press.

     "U.S. advisors created and trained the Atlacatl Battalion
     months before the massacre. It was designed as an elite, go-
     anywhere force to wage full-scale counterinsurgency warfare".
     (Miami Herald, 30/10/92)

During the days of December 11-13, 1981, U.S.-trained soldiers of
the elite Atlacatl Batallion (also responsible for the massacre of
the 6 Jesuit Priests and 2 women, November 16, 1989) surrounded El
Mozote and five other towns nearby (La Joya, Los Toriles, Jocote
Amarillo, Rancheria and Cerro Pando) in the Department of Morazan,
and systematically murdered between 800 and 1100 civilians.

It is only now that some of the mass graves, dug by the soldiers at
the time, are being exhumed, as part of the process of 'truth and
reconciliation'. A team of Argentinian forensic anthropologists are
heading this gruesome work.

     "They are all children and several were babies. At least one
     of the skulls shows bullet holes, most of the others are in
     pieces". (Patricia Bernardi, Argentinian Doctor)

     "We never expected that there would be so many children. These
     are irrefutable facts. A shot to the back of the head is a
     shot to the back of the head". (Luis Fondebrider, Argentinian
     Doctor)

Among the initial findings were the skeletons of a woman and her
unborn child. According to the testimony of the only survivor/
eyewitness, Rufina Amaya, many women were forced to lie face down
in an area near the schoolhouse and shot. Others were raped, then
murdered. Children were stabbed to death, many of them in the
parish house.

El Mozote is a perfect example of the impunity of the Armed Forces
in El Salvador - no one was ever charged with the killings. The
Salvadoran government repeatedly has denied the existence of
massacres (including El Mozote) in El Salvador. Its position was
that any civilian victims were hit in the cross-fire between
government troops and the rebels.

U.S. governments throughout the 1980s (up to the Jesuit Massacre,
November 1989) have always supported the position of the Salvadoran
government. In the case of the El Mozote massacre, the Reagan
government discredited New York Times and Washington Post stories
(the only mainstream stories that gave coverage to the Massacre)
that were published two months after the massacre.

Throughout the 1980s the U.S. never cut military or economic aid to
El Salvador, even as these massacres were occuring. Today, despite
the initial findings of the Truth Commission of full government and
military complicity in the commission of crimes against humanity
and massacres, the U.S. has no plans to cut economic or military
aid to El Salvador.

"The war is over and there are abuses committred by both sides",
stated a State Department spokesperson, typically simplyfying what
occurred in the war and absolving the U.S. of any responsability
for the crimes committed.(Miami Herald) The U.S. has allotted $296
million in aid to El Salvador this year, which includes $86.4 in
military aid!

America's Watch, a human rights organization, stated that the El
Mozote Massacre is illustrative of the underlying causes of so much
suffering and misery in El Salvador:
     "the indiscriminate violence visited upon the civilian
     population by government forces and the absolute impunity
     enjoyed by those who committed such atrocities".

The impunity continues today:
     "Two of the officers who were reportedly in El Mozote, Jaime
     Flores Grijalva and Jesus Caceres Cabrera, have risen to the
     tops of the military. "They have remained in their posts. They
     haven't been touched. On the contrary, they have been
     protected"". (Maria Julia Hernandez, director of Tutela Legal
     human rights commission, Miami Herald, 30/10/92)

It is CODEHUCA's opinion that pressure must continue to be brought
to bear on the U.S. It is extremely doubtful that the war would
have lasted so long, or that so many crimes against humanity would
have been committed if the U.S. had not supported the Salvadoran
military in every way possible.

Reconciliation is not over, it has hardly begun. It will not be
possible if international pressure is not brought to bear on the
government and military of El Salvador.

RECONCILIATION
Whether the crime was a massacre of 800-1100 persons, as in El
Mozote, or a 'only' a few, the suffering of the victims and the
survivors is the same; the personal and collective process of
recuperation is the same.

     "You can't sweep under the rug things that happened over 12
     years because it will fester. There will be recrimination. It
     will sour all attempts at genuine reconciliation and
     cooperation among people". ... "The most important task is to
     prevent the vicious cycle from reappearing. Vengeance leads to
     vengeance leads to vengeance". (Thomas Buergenthal, member of
     the Truth Commission)

CODEHUCA presents the following case based on the written testimony
of Francisco, a 21 year old Salvadoran who, in July-August, 1992,
returned to El Salvador for the first time since he fled to Costa
Rica as a 10 year old refugee in 1981. His story is one of tens of
thousands in El Salvador.

Francisco has presented his case to the Truth Commission, via the
CDHES (non-government human rights commission of El Salvador). His
story is emblematic of the human trauma that huge sectors of the
Salvadoran society are going through and will have to go through
before reconciliation is possible. Individual Salvadorans have to
go and face their ghosts - victims of government, para-military and
military repression.

In the same way, the Salvadoran society as a whole (particularly
the economic, government and military sectors that control most of
the real power and are responsible for most of the human rights
violations) has to accept responsibility for its past, for the
crimes committed against hundreds of thousands of its own citizens,
leaving over 70,000 dead and 7-8000 disappeared.

Francisco is from the small town of Santa Barbara, in the
Department of San Vicente, where the killing of his family members
took place. Much of his village was subsequently destroyed.

Here, we present two excerpts: the first concerning what happened
to Francisco and his family, and why he fled El Salvador; and the
second is part of his testimony that he wrote after his recent trip
back to El Salvador to visit his place of birth, where the massacre
took place.

September, 1990, "The stories told through his eyes":
"In the Central Plaza of San Jose I sit with Francisco, having a
coffee, talking of my trip to El Salvador, his home that he can't
go back to. We talk of his country. Francisco has a faraway look in
his eyes, as he talks about what happened to him, back home, and
how he had to flee El Salvador:

     "I was in my grandparents' hut standing with my grandfather
     when someone saw that the military were coming to our door.
     Grandmother called for my cousin to shut the door. As she was
     doing this a soldier shot her dead, right through the door.
     They barged in as she lay there on the floor. My grandfather
     said 'let us pray'. My grandmother screamed at them 'why did
     you kill her, she didn't do anything? We haven't done
     anything'. She ran into the bedroom. My grandfather was
     holding my youngest cousin and the soldiers began to hack at
     both of them with machetes. They hacked both of them to death.
     I remember so clearly seeing the blades cut into them. My
     grandmother came running out and hit a soldier with a broom.
     He spun around and cut her dead right there. She fell on a bed
     in the front room there, and the soldiers discovered my other
     cousin hiding under the bed. They killed her instantly."

     "I saw all of this. It wasn't till later that I found myself
     cowering in the corner, with their blood on my clothes. I
     realized that I was alive, and I began to wonder why...."

A silence is all around us, in the cool San Jose evening. After a
short while the light slowly comes back to Francisco's eyes. Again,
it is 1990, and he has returned from that time in the 1980s when
his whole life had been torn apart. He returns from a place that he
carries around inside him". (the never ending, p.65-66)

Francisco's Testimony - "Return to Santa Barbara":
     "I started to feel the need to return to El Salvador 8 years
     after the crime because it was around that time that I began
     to have nightmares. In these nightmares I was confronted by
     army soldiers who were chasing me, with machetes in their
     hands and with dogs. As I was fleeing with other people, I was
     crashing into rocks. I saw the other people I was with falling
     into ravines and thorn bushes. ..."

     "In July of 1992 I returned to El Salvador for the first time
     since 1982. ... From San Salvador I took the Usultan bus that
     left me in San Nicolas Lempa. ... Once there I entered a small
     store to have a drink. I saw three women and a big man
     conversing. He was watching me to the point that I began to
     feel quite nervous. He came up to me and asked: "Isn't it true
     that you are of the don Jose Rodriguez family?" I answered
     yes. He continued: "It is just that you have a recognizable
     face. Since the bus pulled in and I saw you get off I knew
     that you were of don Jose's family". I realized that he had
     been watching me the whole time ... I finished my glass of
     water and I said goodbye to him, nervous after this
     encounter".

     "From there I walked at a normal pace towards the small
     village of Santa Barbara. After about half a kilometer I
     arrived at the fork in the road where the 'death squads' had
     once left a dead man by the bus stop, tied up and wrapped in
     a sack. All there was left was a small 30 cm rock that marked
     the spot where the man was buried ...".

     "Up ahead, I could see the first houses -almost totally
     destroyed - of what is Santa Barbara. I could see empty places
     where houses used to be - where there weren't even walls left
     standing - just the cement foundations ...".

     "Despite how desolated Santa Barbara looked I could see that
     some people had sowed their corn seeds. Though they no longer
     live there, they come to work their fields. The closest places
     nearby where people are living now are San Nicolas Lempa and
     Guajoyo. The people living there are mostly those that were
     displaced by the war."

     "It was mid-day and the sun was beating fiercely down. Even
     without walking, I was sweating. I felt body heat pushing out
     of my pores from inside".

     "I walked on to Santa Barbara. Off to the east I could see,
     about 50 meters away, the building where I studied primary
     school. Behind it I could see my grand-parent's house. The
     closer I got the more I could see the extent of the damage and
     ruin of both the school and the house. I looked off in the
     other direction and I could see where my own house used to be.
     There was nothing left except for the cement foundations".

     "I stopped myself for an instant in front of my grand-parents
     house, sweaty hands wiping the tears that were pouring from
     me. A great exhalation shook me, and slowly I decided to open
     the remains of the door to enter into the main room, the only
     room left of the house."

     "It was in this main room that on that February 14, 1981, I,
     along with some other children, witnessed how they murdered my
     family with their machetes. In front of the house I was
     crying. Now inside the house I felt as if my heart was, like,
     being crushed. With my eyes closed I recalled everything from
     that afternoon".

     "After a few minutes in the room, I left and walked slowly
     across the field to where my house had been. Crying, like a
     boy I looked at the sky and cried out to the wind, to the
     grass, to the trees and every thing around me, I cried out
     that some day justice must be done. The pain and suffering I
     felt in that moment allowed me to understand references to the
     ancient ones in the Bible when they tore at their own clothes,
     because I wanted to do the same thing".

     "A few minutes later I walked to the northern section of our
     property where there used to be a small clump of trees. I
     walked towards the place where Nora, my sister, told me that
     she had buried the five bodies, putting them in three separate
     holes in the ground. I crossed over a tiny trickling river
     that crosses our property and I saw the exact place --- my
     tears froze, they stopped. I walked back and forth, one side
     to the other. I wanted to run from that spot. At the same time
     a huge force was pulling at me from inside. About two meters
     away from the inundation where my family members were buried
     I slumped to the ground and almost without realizing it I
     began to cite the Lord's prayer, like my grand-father had done
     on that February 14, 1981. I felt, somehow, like on that
     February 14, that they were praying with me".

     "Amidst the tears again streaming down my face, with a
     stuttering voice I was saying, asking: "Why did they kill you
     grand-father, why did they kill all of you, why?"

     "I stayed about 15 minutes by my grand-parents unmarked grave.
     Then I went back to the house. This time I took some
     photographs that might possibly be used in a judicial
     investigation of the massacre and a future exhumation of the
     victims in their anonymous grave".

Francisco's story is not over. His process of recuperation has just
begun. The process of reconciliation in El Salvador has just begun.
During the next months much international pressure must be kept up
so that the Truth Comission can fully carry out its mandated
investigation. This process of reconciliation and recuperation will
take years in El Salvador.

Even with the best intentions, the Truth Commission will only be
able to deal with a relatively small percentage of the suffering
caused by 12 years of state and military violence against the
Salvadoran people. Over the next years pressure must be kept up so
that the tens of thousands of survivors, like Francisco, can go and
meet their ghosts, and put some of their mourning to rest.

International work
There is an extremely important international aspect to El
Salvador's possible reconciliation. The U.S. government must take
responsibility for its role in financing, equiping and training so
many militaries that have systematically violated the rights of
their own citizens in South and particularly Central America over
the past decades.

U.S. government agencies (the CIA, the State Department) have huge
amounts of information concerning the backgrounds of top Salvadoran
military officers. U.S. citizens, organizations, the press and
politicians must pressure right now for the U.S. government to
release all available information concerning El Salvadoran military
personnel and military tactics.

This information is vital for the Truth Commission, and for any
future work, particularly in that it would help to establish that
the El Salvador government and military carried out
institutionalized practices of human rights violations.

For more information about Francisco's case, or anything else,
please contact us: Contact in CODEHUCA - Grahame Russell and
Marjoleine Motz, AP 189-1002, San Jose, Costa Rica, Tel - 506-
245970, Fax - 506-342935