From: Andrew Lang <lang@igc.apc.org>
Subject: truth commission alert
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 00:46:58 GMT

/* Written  9:14 am  Nov 10, 1992 by codehuca@igc.apc.org in igc:carnet.alerts */
/* ---------- "truth commission alert" ---------- */
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION IN EL SALVADOR

CODEHUCA (Commission for the Defense of Human Rights in Central
America) presents information that appeared in the November 7,
1992, Miami Herald. CODEHUCA believes that it is crucial, in the
short and long term, that the international community act upon this
information.

Thomas Buergenthal, a U.S. law professor and member of the U.N.
appointed Truth Commission (that is investigating "serious acts of
violence that have occurred since 1980, and whose impact on [the El
Salvadoran] society urgently demands that the public should know
the truth") recently said that access to U.S. documents and
personnel are crucial to understanding atrocities in a war that
claimed nearly 75,000 lives and left 7-8000 persons disappeared.

The Pentagon and the CIA are restricting access to documents and
people that shed light on past atrocities in El Salvador, said
Buergenthal. This type of cover-up is undermining efforts by the
Truth Commission to present an objective account of the 12-year
civil war.

CIA spokesperson Peter Earnest said "we have the request [for
information] under review and we will respond in as timely a
fashion as possible". Timing is of the essence in this case as the
Truth Commission has a 6 month mandate that expires in January
1993, to complete its work. 

Between 1980 and 1992 Washngton sent $1 billion in military and
financial aid to El Salvador to fight the FMLN and train thousands
of officers and soldiers. Moreover, the U.S. had, at times, as many
as 100 military and intelligence advisors in the country. Thus, it
is obvious that the US controls a huge amount of information about
individuals, batallions, tactics, etc, that could clearly help the
Truth Commission.

Among the documents are: -i- a 1981 Pentagon study known as the
"Woerner Report" that assessed Salvadoran military strategy and
capacity; and -ii- a CIA study on the death squads and right wing
paramilitary groups that was prepared in the mid 1980s. The
Pentagon has refused thus far to make these documents available and
to provide names and addresses of U.S. military personnel stationed
in El Salvador during the war.

CODEHUCA encourages pressure to be immediately brought on the U.S.
political process to ensure that all this and other available
information is released and that the Truth Commission can talk to
those Americans (members of the CIA, the US Armed Forces, or
otherwise) who have pertinent knowledge. 

Please make this information to the local and international press,
congresspersons and senators to exert pressure on the Pentagon and
the CIA to fully support the work of the Truth Commission.  

If the truth about who are the responsable parties for all the
atrocities is not made known, then the structures of impunity are
left in place, the guilty are left free to again commit crimes, and
the victims remain frustrated in their need for some sort of
justice to be done.

Contacts - CODEHUCA, Grahame Russell and Marjoleine Motz, AP 19-
1002, San Jose, Costa Rica, tel-506-245970, fax-506-342935

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