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SALVADORAN WAR CRIMINALS VIOLATE ACCORD

By Carl Glenn

The government of El Salvador is openly defying fundamental terms
of the peace accords it signed with the Farabundo Marti National
Liberation Front. The most flagrant violation of the
agreement--the refusal to purge the worst war criminals from the
ranks of the Salvadoran military--occurred after the FMLN had
demobilized and disarmed in full compliance with the pact.

Meanwhile, the government of the United States has taken no
action to force the government of El Salvador to comply with the
UN-sponsored settlement. Neither the State Department, the
outgoing Bush administration, Bill Clinton nor the Congress has
criticized the Salvadoran government's betrayal of the peace
agreement. Washington trained, armed, advised and spent hundreds
of millions of dollars to prop up the Salvadoran military for the
duration of the war. Another $42 million in military assistance
is scheduled to go to the Salvadoran high command.

The UN oversaw the signing of the agreement between the FMLN and
the government of El Salvador on Jan. 16, 1992 in Chapultepec,
Mexico. Under the terms of the agreement, the Salvadoran
government was obligated to purge 102 officers from the ranks of
the military. An independent Ad Hoc Commission agreed upon by
both sides compiled the list of the bloodiest human-rights
violators in the Salvadoran Armed Forces. Chapter 1, Paragraph 5
of the agreement states clearly that the purge will be carried
out to "overcome all evidence of impunity on the part of officers
of the Armed Forces, specifically in cases where the respect for
human rights is involved."

WORST BUTCHERS PROMOTED

Of the 102 on the list, the ARENA government led by Alfredo
Cristiani discharged 25, transferred 25 to other positions and
placed 37 on a paid leave-of-absence until their scheduled
retirement. The 15 remaining officers, among them some of the
worst butchers of civilians, were given promotions and transfers
to important positions or were simply allowed to remain as
before.

Defense Minister Rene Emilio Ponce is to be allowed to remain in
his post until Cristiani's term expires in May 1994. Colonel
Julio Grijalva, charged with at least 60 human rights violations,
will become head of the most important infantry brigade in the
country, located in the capital. Colonel Jose Orellano, charged
with 79 human-rights violations, will take a top post in the High
Command of the Salvadoran Armed Forces. Colonel Jose Godinez,
charged with 214 human-rights violations, and Colonel Orlando
Carranza, charged with 357 cases of human-rights violations, were
named as military attaches to the Salvadoran Embassy in
Washington.

In addition, the Salvadoran government was to have confiscated
weapons, estimated to number "several thousand," distributed to
"civilians and individuals" during the war. Although the deadline
passed on Dec. 8, less than 100 of these weapons have been
 recovered. Unidentified individuals have committed numerous acts
of terrorism against trade unionists and leaders of progressive
organizations recently. On Jan. 3, Mirna Perla de Anaya, a
leading human-rights activist in El Salvador, was stopped in her
car by six masked men who fired their weapons, wounding her
15-year-old son. Anaya's husband, also a human rights leader, was
murdered by a "death squad" during the war.

One reason the U.S. government has not reacted with outrage and
disgust is these military commanders worked closely with the U.S.
Embassy and its military advisers throughout the war. The U.S.
government, therefore, is not only implicated in these crimes,
but was the intellectual author and bears primary criminal
responsibility for directing the war in which between 70-80,000
people were killed, the majority civilians.

                               -30-

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if
source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 West 21st
Street, New York, NY 10010; e-mail: ww%nyxfer@igc.apc.org or
workers@mcimail.com.)


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