Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 5, 1992 TAG: 9201060205
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
IN EL SALVADOR, MAY PEACE TAKE HOLD
IT WAS THE biggest and perhaps the bloodiest of Central America's civil wars. Because the United States contributed arms and money, for this country it was a controversial conflict. But now an end may be in sight to the 12-year war in El Salvador.A truce at midnight on New Year's Eve stilled the guns, at least temporarily. Next must be worked out the details of the broad agreement between the El Salvadoran government and the five guerrilla groups that fought as the national liberation front.
The retiring United Nations secretary general, Javier Perez de Cuellar, kept the sides together during two weeks of negotiations. But they were ready to deal because the rest of the world has changed since the war began 12 years ago.
Once, Cold War rivalries virtually guaranteed that the superpowers would be drawn into such wars as suppliers and political supporters. This, in turn, guaranteed that the wars would drag on inconclusively while killing and suffering intensified. El Salvador's war left 75,000 dead and 20 percent of the nation's 5 million people displaced from their homes.
Not for the first time, the United States found itself tied to a policy of, at best, political and moral ambiguity. On the one hand, it understandably wished to - and did - oppose leftist rebels whose Marxist rhetoric and alliances raised fears about their ultimate intent. On the other hand, that meant propping up a reactionary regime that used U.S. arms as a more efficient means of subduing its own people. El Salvador became infamous for the death squads that raided village and countryside, summarily kidnapping or executing civilians it considered dangerously reformist.
Under pressure from Washington to improve its human-rights record, the Salvadoran government tossed up a few enlisted men for punishment, but those who gave the orders to kill held their jobs. In Washington, the White House applied less stringent rights standards than Congress, which became increasingly reluctant to supply the regime. It will be a happy day for most Salvadorans if that debate now can end.
There appears a remarkable willingness between government and rebels to compromise. The accord signed this past week provides that if they do not settle their remaining differences by Jan. 10, the United Nations will have the power to decide them. In either case, "final agreements of peace" are to be signed Jan. 16, with a formal cease-fire Feb. 1.
It may prove easier to write restrictions on the military - one of the keys to the accord - than to carry them out. In most countries where it holds the balance of power, the army does not readily yield it; for the accord to work, Salvador's military must be kept in check. If Washington can assist in that effort, it will be time and money well-spent.