Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 19, 1993 TAG: 9303190512
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ATROCITIES
THERE IS nothing especially surprising in a U.N. Truth Commission's report on El Salvador's sad and bloody history. Leaders of the military and government are blamed for a long list of atrocities - including ordering the murders of thousands since 1980.Many people familiar with El Salvador knew or figured long ago that this was the truth, even as the Reagan and Bush administrations were insisting that the Salvadoran government was trying to restrain death squads and "rogue" military units in that country's long civil war.
Now that the fabled communist hordes are no longer threatening to cross into Texas, and Salvadoran peace accords are in place, some people in the United States may shrug at the U.N. commission's findings and wonder why we should be involved with what happens in that country.
But, of course, we are involved. The United States armed and trained the Salvadoran army and helped bankroll the nightmare that left so many victims, the truth among them.
Blood remains on many hands, but the 700 terrorist deaths attributed to a rebel faction amount to just a fraction of the 75,000 who died during the war - most killed by the repressive regime in alliance with soldiers, security police and death squads.
A peace of exhaustion has settled, thankfully, on the country now. But El Salvador faces the challenge other tortured Latin nations have confronted: how to reconcile justice with the need to put the past behind and move on; how to have retribution and reconciliation.
The U.N. commission, which grew out of the peace accords, has recommended a good course. Clean up the corrupt Salvadoran judicial system so that it could try those accused of war crimes. Prosecute the criminals, where possible. Immediately purge from the officer ranks those linked to atrocities. And ban for 10 years from government service anyone named by the commission, including leaders of the rebel group implicated in the killing of some mayors and civilians.
Salvadoran President Alfredo Christiani tried to postpone or block publication of the Truth Commission's report, which was released Monday. His minister of defense, identified as the mastermind behind the murder of six Jesuit priests and two others in 1989, has resigned. Other disgraced officers remain in the military.
Christiani warns that only blanket amnesty will prevent destabilization of his country (translate, a coup). But military coups are less a threat nowadays, with the United States not prepared to back and bankroll them.
It is best to face the truth - best for Salvadorans, best for Americans.