From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: Proceso 532: Editorial
Date: 15 Oct 92 21:12:46 GMT
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Organization: PACH
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu

/** reg.elsalvador: 128.0 **/
** Topic: Proceso 532: Editorial **
** Written 11:46 am  Oct 15, 1992 by cidai@huracan.cr in cdp:reg.elsalvador **
From: cidai@huracan.cr (Centro de Informacion Documentacion y Apoyo a la Invest. - UCAJSC)
Subject: Proceso 532: Editorial

Center for Information, Documentation and Research Support (CIDAI)
Central American University (UCA)
San Salvador, El Salvador
 
PROCESO 532
September 30, 1992
 
EDITORIAL:
The Armed Forces is resisting a housecleaning
 
     In Washington recently, President Cristiani said that the
Armed Forces is the institution doing the most for peace in El
Salvador, and that it is making an enormous sacrifice in the
process. However, the military's reaction to two recent
denunciations, and the potential consequences of the Ad Hoc
Commission's report, contradict the president's assertion.
     When the non-governmental Human Rights Commission published a
list of officers who ought to be discharged for human rights
abuses, the Armed Forces' reaction was arrogant and
confrontational. However, the military merely attempted to
discredit the group, and did not deny the fact that the officers
mentioned might have been responsible for the abuses.
     Soon afterwards, the Jesuit provincials of the United States
directly accused the Atlacatl Battalion of "contempt for human
life." The military's reaction was immediate: within 24 hours it
published another one of its typically arrogant replies, belittling
the U.S. Jesuits, but again not denying the charges leveled against
the battalion. At another level, the provincials' open letter has
inspired the pens of the extreme right-wing who, curiously enough,
wallow in the same chauvinistic arguments used by the military.
     Gen. Zepeda's reaction was extremely candid: "those deviations
or violations... were committed while fulfilling a constitutional
duty, a mandate which the Armed Forces possesses..." (El Mundo,
9/24). Zepeda thereby admits the violations and justifies them
under the mantle of the Constitution which, he claims, authorizes
the Armed Forces to violate human rights.
     So on two occasions, with the arrogance which has always
characterized it, and which the new, unfolding situation has been
incapable of altering, the Armed Forces (in the person of Gen.
Zepeda) actually acknowledged that it has violated human rights
while fulfilling an alleged constitutional mandate. If the
military's interpretation of the Constitution were correct, the
nation's charter would thus authorize soldiers to murder
individuals and groups, torture and forcibly disappear persons,
kill in cold blood, violate laws which guarantee due process, and
so forth. Thus President Cristiani should not publicly show
surprise, as he just did in Washington, that everyone holds the
Armed Forces responsible for almost all the nation's evils.
     The military has unquestionably failed to interpret correctly
the Armed Forces' constitutional mandate, and has manipulated the
Constitution in order to justify the unjustifiable. This is
precisely why a special commission was set up to recommend the
discharge of those who have failed to observe "the legal order,
with particular emphasis on respect for human rights," as well as
those who are professionally incompetent or have no demonstrated
ability "to function within the context of a democratic society."
     Faced with an imminent housecleaning, it is not surprising
that military officers might be nervous and jumpy. What is abnormal
is that they have not become any less arrogant by now, and persist
in attitudes which lead them to cast doubts on the integrity of the
members and sources of the Ad Hoc Commission, in clear contrast to
the official posture of the nation's Commander-in-Chief, who has
publicly acknowledged the moral authority of the Commission.
     The military's notable willingness to make sacrifices for
peace, mentioned by Cristiani in his speech, was not apparent to
the members of the Ad Hoc Commission, since the Armed Forces
cooperated very little. Most of the information gleaned about the
individual conduct of officers, on the basis of which the
Commission and its staff conducted interviews with some of them,
came from non-governmental human rights organizations. The Armed
Forces also currently displays very little willingness to accept
the short list of officers who must be discharged or transferred.
     The Armed Forces' resistance to a housecleaning is strong and
persistent, even though the list only mentions, in theory, the 240
officers who were interviewed, of a corps of 2,203 as of May 1992.
Besides the fact that the number of officers affected by the
Commission's report was quite small, the crimes of corruption and
drug trafficking were not even taken into consideration.
     As a consequence, the work of purging the army is far from
satisfactory. Democratizing the State requires continuing this
work, by creating an institution where victims, their relatives,
and human rights organizations can present their complaints of
abuses, corruption and drug trafficking.
     Finally, the work of the Ad Hoc Commission would be incomplete
if it were kept from the public. Nowhere in the peace accords does
it state that the report must be kept confidential. Therefore, the
Salvadoran people have the right to know which officers were to be
discharged or transferred. Publicizing the report is a democratic
demand, and in this sense, the Legislative Assembly ought to be the
first to make that demand. Keeping the report confidential means
prolonging the lie and the silence. It would only be heaping more
injustice on the victims. Furthermore, it allows for "dirty deals"
between President Cristiani and the Armed Forces.
     What guarantees the rule of impunity is the certainty that the
identity of the perpetrator will never become known. What human
rights violators fear most is the publication of their names.
Therefore, one of the most solid guarantees for human rights is the
certainty that the criminal will be revealed and brought to
justice.
     In this case, keeping the Ad Hoc Commission's report
confidential means complicity with concealment and impunity. It
also makes no sense if what President Cristiani says about the
Armed Forces' sacrifice for peace is true.
 

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