World

FMLN offers new election peace plan

El Salvador’s united revolutionary
movement says it will support the upcom-
ing national election — but on condition
that the United States refrain from inter-
fering and the army stays in the barracks.

Ina key policy initiative the Farabundo
Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN)
presented a six-point proposal that it
stated would change the electoral process
from “a fraud” into a true mandate from
the people.

The proposals, under the signatures of
the FMLN’s five-member revolutionary
command, was delivered to the presiden-
tial palace Jan. 23. It was rejected outright
by the fascist Nationalist Revolutionary
Alliance (ARENA), and called “unconsti-
tutional” by the ruling Christian Demo-
crats.

The FMLN has waged a nine-year
struggle for national liberation and con-
trols much of the territory in the small
Central American nation. It and several
other political parties have boycotted the
past five elections which have been charac-
terized by violence and murder from the

U.S. administrations have pursued a
policy of active intervention in El Salva-
dor, providing “advisors” and equipment
to the army. A policy of carpet bombing of
the country side and the forced re-location
of peasants into “model” villages has
earned the tiny nation on the Pacific coast
the unwanted title, ‘Central America’s
Vietnam.”

But in the spirit of a new world climate
in which armed conflicts are being nego-
tiated, the front has stated it will support
the election, subject to the following con-
ditions:

@ That assassinations and armed repres-
sion of all strikes, demonstrations and
other manifestations of popular discont-
ent cease.

@ That the army and paramilitary for-
ces be confined to barracks on election
day.

® That the Democratic Convergence,
the electoral alliance supported by the
FMLN, be included in the Central Elec-
toral Council which oversees voting, and
that a civilian electoral council of religious,
humanitarian and civic organizations

@ That an electoral code agreed on by
all political parties be written. %

@ That Salvadorans outside the coun-
try be allowed to vote.

® That the U.S. government stay out of
the electoral process.

The FMLN command also proposed
that the elections, scheduled for March 20,
be postponed until Sept. 15, El Salvador’s
independence day.

In return, the front pledged to respect
the election, observe a truce two days
before and after the polling date, and to
call on “‘all its social bases” to participate.
The FMLN proposed that the present
government of President Napoleon Duarte
continue in office past the expiry date of
June 1.

Both ARENA and the Christian
Democrats called the proposal “unconsti-
tutional,” and the fascist group threatened
legal action against government officials
who attempted to negotiate with the
FMLN. Christian Democratic presiden-
tial candidate Fidel Chavez Mena termed
the proposal positive and promised to
study it, but he also ruled out changing the

i The FMLN statement called on all pol-
itical forces “‘to put peace above the pres-
ent laws.”

It stated: “The conditions in which the
current elections are being carried out
make them illegitimate ...As long as the
situation does not change, the FMLN will
maintain its position accompanying the
population in its rejection of the current
elections.

“The present electoral process is aggra-
vating the war. Our proposal is contribut-
ing to peace,” the front’s command stated.

The current electoral setup is consi-
dered fraudulent by El Salvador’s people,
and the country’s total dependence on
U.S. aid makes participating parties try to
curry favour with Washington rather than
with the people, the FMLN charged.

The revolutionary front backs the cam-
paign of the Democratic Convergence,
whose presidential candidate is Guillermo
Ungo.

The FMLN command consists of
Roberto Roca, Shafik Handal, Leonel
Gonzalez, Ferman Cinefuegos and Joa-

army and right-wing paramilitary death
squads. i

audit the election.

election date.

quin Villalobos.

The strugg

By CHRIS FRAZER
(last of a series)

In addition to the
mounting toll of
injuries and deaths,
the Palestinians have
suffered a dramatic
escalation of what
the army calls “‘col-
lective punishment”
— mass intimidation
aimed against entire
cities, villages and §&
camps.

Refugee camps
like Jalazone are hit hard by the army
because they are traditionally the most mil-
itant cradles of the resistance.

Entering the camp, we are greeted with
the usual stampede of children flashing the
victory sign and chanting in the only Eng-
lish they know: “PLO! Israeli No!”

Running about us helter-skelter, and .
brimming with excitement at the arrival of :
friends, they accompany us en masse to the
site of a house recently demolished — dyna-
mited — by the army. Sitting atop the
remaining rubble of what was once a three-
storey home that housed a 14-person family
is a single tent.

Mohammed, the camp leader, said the
house belonged to his oldest son, and was
destroyed three days after Mohammed’s
return from a nine-month imprisonment in
Ansar 3.

“Since the occupation, not one of my
family has escaped arrest. This time I came
home only to discover that my oldest son
had been arrested 10 days earlier,” said
Mohammed. “Then the army arrived,
imposed a curfew, surrounded the camp,
and destroyed my son’s house.

“The army did this to intimidate me and
my family, to terrorize the people of the
camp, and to destroy their spirit,” he said.
“But the plan backfired, because afterwards
the entire camp of 8,000 people attacked the
army with stones and drove them out.”

Last year, Jalazone was the victim of the
longest curfew ever imposed by the
army — 45 continuous days.

“Curfew means that you cannot leave
vour home, not even for one minute, or you
will be beaten, or tear-gassed, or even shot.
The streets are constantly filled with soldi-
ers,” explained Mohammed.

“Normally, under curfew we are permit-

FRAZER

& » Pacific Tribune, January 30, 1989

le that will not be put down

An Israeli soldier stands guard over the Ansar 3 prison camp,

international agreements.

ted to leave the camp for one hour each day
to get food, but this time the army wouldn’t
allow even that for the first two weeks. They
even refused to allow the Red Cross or UN
to enter.

“During this curfew eight people died:
four children, three men, and one woman.
One child was a newborn who died of dehy-
dration because his mother could not nurse
and could not go out to even buy milk. An
old man died when his home caught fire; he
was not allowed to escape and no one was
permitted to go and help him.

“This is inexcusable behaviour. How can
we forgive this?” :

Mohammed and 5* others were arrested
in March during an arrest campaign organ-
ized by the Israeli army in an attempt to
quell the intifada.

“When they came to arrest us, they tried
to enter the camp for three weeks, but we
stopped them,” said: Mohammed. “Finally
they entered at night with 2,000 soldiers,
using helicopters and armoured personnel
carriers.”

Five prisoners, including Mohammed,

—

were sent to Ansar 3, the notorious prison
camp located in the heart of the Negev
desert, near the Egyptian border, and out-
side the West Bank. Their transfer to the
camp was a violation of international law
on two counts: no prisoners are to be trans-
ferred from the land under occupation; and
they are not to be located near militarily
sensitive borders. :

Their living conditions and treatment
were nearly unbearable, said Mohammed.
“We lived in tents, with 20 people each,
without floors, on the open sand, with only
rough boards and thin foam mattresses to
sleep upon. It was extremely hot, reaching
45 degrees Celsius at noon, and we were
constantly exposed to hot wind and sand-
storms.”

Even the removal of shirts during the day
was an offence punishable by solitary con-
finement. The hands of those thrown into
solitary would be tied with plastic strips that
tighten with every motion, cutting off circu-
lation and causing excruciating pain.

“We would be kept awake at night by the
screams of those in confinement, and it

where hundreds of Palestinians have been sent, in violation of

would become a torture for everyone in the
camp,” said Mohammed.

Eventually the prisoners rioted when two
Palestinians were shot dead by the warden
for refusing to work.

Throughout the last year, the army has
arrested nearly 30,000 Palestinians. Of
those, 5,000 have been sent to Ansar 3 and
other detention camps.

Curfews and sieges have amounted to —
more than 2,000 days and nearly 600 homes
have been demolished or sealed with
cement, with more than 5,000 individuals —
displaced as a result.

Yet despite these incredible hardships,
the Palestinians not only endure, but find
the strength to resist and fight back.

“There is nothing more that they can do
to frighten,” said Mohammed. “At this
moment, 200 people from our camp are in
prison, including two of my sons, two of my
grandsons, and one of my daughters. They
have already murdered one of my sons. We
don’t expect anything else from the Israe-_
lis.”

—