World

By KIM BOLAN
SAN SALVADOR — In the black of
night, there is the roar of invisible helicop**
ters and the thunder of their loads hitting
the shanties of this blood-soaked city’s
poorest barrios.

In the light of morning, there are the

_bodies of victims littering the streets and
hills fuil of charred ruins and anger.

Even though the rebels of the Farabundo
Marti National Liberation Front have
moved their offensive away from their sup-

_ porters in San Salvador’s northern regions
of poverty-striken “champas,” the U.S.-
backed military continues to bomb nightly
and without warning.

The FMLN and opposition groups
throughout the country have condemmed
the indiscriminate bombing of civilian pop-
ulations which started Nov. 11, with the
guerrillas’ strongest-ever offensive in this
capital city of 500,000.

But the extreme right-wing government
of President Alfredo Cristiani justifies the
bombing in commercials and news reports
Over the country’s radio and television sta-
ons, which it seized control of four weeks
ago. |

“We have to bomb these areas to deal
with the terrorists of the FMLN,” the
announcements read.

Despite the propaganda, it is clear the
military’s agenda is as much concerned with
“dealing” with anyone who opposes them
as it is the rebel fighters.

When the FMLN moved into San Salva-
dor’s wealthy enclave of Escalon two weeks
ago, stating loudly that “the war had come
to the country’s rich,” not a single bomb
was dropped. In fact, the military agreed for
the first time to an FMLN request for a
cease-fire so that civilians could be evacu-
ated.

“When the muchachos came to our bar-
rio, they said to us: ‘The army is going to
come and bomb you.’ ” said Julio Cesar, 43,
referring to the guerrillas, known affection-
ately as “the boys.”

“Then they said: ‘We will go to the rich
zones and see if they do the same thing to
the people there.” ”

Now Cesar lives in his leased taxi because
of the destruction of his tiny tin home in the
barrio of Zacamil by a 500-pound bomb.
And he is angry that the military never
touched the lives of the rich in this city.

“The army will never bomb the houses of
all those wealthy people. As a Catholic I
don’t like to see people suffer, but I don’t
like it either that there is no justice.”

Across this city of pastel-washed, graffiti-
covered buildings and militarized streets,
people are cautious, but willing, to con-
demn the bombing ordered by their own
government. And some, though not as
many, will even whisper their support for
the FMLN’s offensive.

The guerrillas say their move into the
capital has resulted in thousands of new
recruits and many more who now under-
stand what they are trying to achieve and
support it.

That's why the FMLN is “indignant”
Over an agreement of the five Central Amer-
ican presidents reached in Costa Rica this
week which says the contras in Nicaragua
will be disbanded if the Salvadoran rebels
are demobilized as well.

“We reject the declaration ... because it
runs contrary to the international commun-
ity and social forces and churches in El
Salvador,” the FMLN General Command
stated this week.

“This declaration unconditionally sup-
ports the principal violator of human rights
of the region: a government which has
assassinated and persecuted the religious
community and bombed its civilian popula-
tion.”

In Cuidad de Delgado, Abram Martinez
sifts with his hands through piles and piles
of burnt memories in what used to be his
brother’s pleasant working-class bungalow.

Aside from the heads of two porcelain
figurines and a small wall display of burned
images of Jesus and Mary, nota single thing
in the two-bedroom house is intact or even
recognizable.

Bombings, killings
in El Salvador show
gov't's ruthlessness

So what is the 65-year-old hoping to find
in the devastation caused by one of the
thousands of bombs dropped here in recent
weeks? “A few colones,” he said, holding
out a handful of blackened coins worth less
than fifty cents.

His family has lost everything and has
received “nothing from the government” in
return. “The Red Cross and the church gave
us some food and some clothes, but even
though the government has said it is helping
people, we see none of it.”

Occassionally, the images that darken the
sky during the day are huge C-47 or A-37
bombers. More frequently they are black
military helicopters, nicknamed “avispas
or wasps by the people. The U.S. bombs

that are thrown from them have come to be

called “papayas” because their shape
resembles the more appetizing fruit. :

When they work in daylight, there is
sometimes a brief warning for those in their
pathway. At night, the warning comes as
the bomb decimates everything around its
contact point for 50 feet. estan

“It is the armed forces’ indiscriminate
bombing of many places that has caused the
majority of the deaths in the civilian popula-
tions,” said Miguel Montinegro, a director
of the Human Rights Commission, a non-
governmental organization. —

“The government is accusing the FMLN
in many cases of causing the death and
destruction. But we know that in many
cases the government accuses the FMLN
when it is the government who is responsi-
ble.”

And while official figures state that more
than 2,000 have died in the last month, the
death toll is inevitably much much higher.

Onastreet corner in Colonia Scandia —
as on many streets these days — yellowish,
stiff legs stick out of a pile of burning debris
surrounded by soliders of the F irst Brigade.

“He was a guerrilla,” the soliders say
openly, not worrying about take responsi-
bility for torching his body and destroying
his identity.

All along narrow streets and walkways
are mounds of fresh dirt with small wooden
crosses pushed upright into them. Nearby,
people admit they buried one, sometimes
four, bodies because after four days in the
hot sun, no one had come for them — not
family members or police officials trying to
identify them.

With so many bodies being destroyed or
buried on the spot, there is no way of know-
ing if they were guerrillas, civilians, journal-
ists or victims of political assassination. And
there is no way of knowing just how many
people have died.

Said Montinegro: “They capture people
and claim they are members of the FMLN
without mentioning they are members of
popular organizations of our country and
not with the guerrillas at all.” -

But organizations like the Human Rights
Commission can barely function now, even
though the need for their work document-
ing the abuses is greater than ever.

“Since the offensive began, the govern-
ment has implemented a greater system of
repression against all the different organiza-
tions, among them workers, campesinos,
students, churches and the human rights
organizations,” said Montinegro, at an
interview arranged in a secret location.

A controversial anti-terrorist law was
passed by the ARENA-controlled National
Assembly two weeks ago, restricting almost
every aspect of free speech and guaranteeing
lengthy prison terms for anyone participat-
ing in a demonstration or caught spray-
painting or even holding a politcal leaflet.

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As well, international church and com-
munity workers who have been involved
with programs for earthquake victims,
those displaced by the war, campesinos and
the millions living in poverty are being cap-
tured, threatened and deported. The
government has said no more visas for for-
eigners will be issued.

As part of the propaganda against out-
siders, military planes flew over the capital
10 days ago, dropping thousands of leaflets
which said all Salvadorans have the right to
kill internationals because they are trying to
help the FMLN.

In spite of the blatant violations of
human rights and open death threats,‘the
American government is sticking by
ARENA — National Republican Alliance
— and has even talked about increasing
military aid to the country, which has
amounted to $4 billion and 70,000 deaths in
this 10-year-old civil war.

When a small Cessna plane carrying
some Nicaraguan records crashed in Usulu-
tan on Nov. 25, Cristiani gleefully called a
press conference and laid out two dozen
surface-to-air missiles and other weapons
found aboard the vessel and believed to be
an arms shipment for the FMLN.

“This shows that Daniel Ortega and
Fidel Castro contribute to the violence in

this country,” Cristiani said, though he pro-
vided no evidence of a link to Cuba.

Nor did he mention his party’s links to
death squads or the suspected involvement
of his own armed forces in the bloody assas-
sination of six Jesuit priests Nov. 15.

In fact, at a second press conference Dec.
9, Cristiani madé the outrageous claim that
the FMLN had blown the Jesuits’ brains
out, even though the ammunition used was
military issue and witnesses had seen uni-
formed men near the murdered bodies that
same night. He also claimed a bomb that
killed 10 people at the offices of the
National Federation of Salvadoran Workers
Unions (FENASTRAS) on Oct. 31 was set
by the FMLN. The charge came even
though the government frequently links
FENASTRAS with the guerrillas.

So as the government tries to salvage any
scrap of credibility it can, the FMLN says it
has gained huge support in San Salvador
for its goal of a negotiated settlement involv-
ing all political sectors and popular organi-
zations in the country.

“We are definitely winning,” says one
young commander interviewed. “We are
capturing more arms than we are losing and
the people are joining us.”

Jose Roberto Gonzalez lies in a hospital
bed in San Miquel, his left shoulder ripped
open, raw and oozing. He leans forward
slightly showing how the M-16 cartridge
went right through him as he walked to
work at 4 a.m. two days earlier.

“T knew the curfew was on, but I had to
get to work. I had to feed my family. I don’t
understand why they shoot,” he said of the
soldiers. “If you ask them what they are
fighting for, they don’t even know. If you
ask the FMLN, at least they have a reason.”

Kim Bolan is a member of the Vancouver-
New Westminster Newspaper Guild. She
recently returned from a visit to El Salvador.

PHOTO: — JULIO BALTAZAR CERRES

TOP: Residents flee bombing of barrio in San Salvador; BOTTOM: FMLN fighters

flash victory sign beside destroyed army armoured car in wealthy Escalaon barrio.
Photo for the worker-run El Diario Latino was banned from publication by ARENA

government.

Pacific Tribune, December 18, 1989 « 25