
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 26, 1990                   TAG: 9007260538
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/10   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA                                LENGTH: Short

SALVADORANS AGREE TO FORM HUMAN-RIGHTS PANEL

Negotiators for El Salvador and the leftist guerrillas agreed early today to form an independent commission to monitor human rights in El Salvador, a U.N. mediator said.

The accord was reached early today after an all-night negotiating session in San Jose. Alvaro de Soto, mediator for U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, made the announcement.

"The accord reached today between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front rebels doesn't close the topic of human rights, but it is a partial accord," de Soto said.

The talks, intended to bring about a cease-fire in the country's decade-long civil war, began Friday. When no progress was made on that issue, negotiators began discussing human rights in an attempt to make some progress.

This is the third round of talks this year aimed at reaching a cease-fire in the conflict that has killed 72,000 people. At least 30,000 died at the hands of right-wing death squads, human-rights groups say.

The latest victims include six Jesuit priests, their cook and her 16-year-old daughter, who were killed Nov. 16 by armed men in military uniforms at the Central American University. Several soldiers were arrested in the case, but they have not been brought to trial yet.

by CNB