‘Pray a Lot’ for Talks, Salvador Bishop Urges

More than a month after President Jose Napoleon Duarte called for a new round of peace talks with the country’s leftist guerrillas, the two sides have still not agreed on a time or a place for the meeting.

Government, military and guerrilla leaders say they want a negotiated settlement of the conflict, but all have expressed doubt that renewed negotiations will lead to a breakthrough.

Msgr. Arturo Rivera y Damas, archbishop of San Salvador, on Wednesday criticized both sides as using the proposed talks to further their own political ends. He spoke out at a Mass in honor of the patron saint of the capital.

“I still believe there will be a third round of talks, but we still must do a lot of work and, above all, pray a lot,” Rivera y Damas said.

Representatives of the government and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front met twice in 1984 to try to negotiate an end to the six-year-old civil war. Rivera y Damas was mediator for the last two rounds and has been serving as a go-between in the effort to set up a third.

Last week, he carried a government proposal to guerrilla leaders in the northeastern province of Morazon, then returned with a counterproposal. He said the government’s answer to that has been sent to the guerrillas.

Rivera y Damas would not reveal any of the details that are holding up an agreement. He said the dialogue “is a political instrument to resolve a political problem by parties who also have political interests” and that these interests “affect aspects such as the date and place” for talks.

Government offices were closed for the day of the patron saint, and most officials were out of the city.

Ruben Zamora, a leader of the Revolutionary Democratic Front, the unarmed political ally of the guerrillas, said by telephone from Managua that he is optimistic that the talks will get started by the end of September.

At first, Duarte had called for talks in July or August. The guerrillas accepted his offer to meet with them but asked that the meeting take place July 30 in San Salvador. The government said no. Zamora said the rebels “are not putting our foot down” on San Salvador as the site, but he would not elaborate on why there has been no agreement.

Duarte has said he wants to talk with the guerrillas about putting down their arms and joining the legal political system. On the rebels’ Radio Venceremos, guerrilla commander Shafik Handal recently repeated the rebels’ position that they will not disarm.

“If they could disarm us there would not be any . . . dialogue,” Handal said.

The rebels do not recognize the Duarte government or the constitution. They say both are products of a state of emergency, and that only a minority of the people had a voice in approving them.

In the past, the guerrillas have called for a transitional government in which they would be represented, for integration of the guerrilla forces with the regular army, for new elections and a new constitution.

A government source said that his best hope for a third round of talks is that it will serve as a mechanism for setting up further talks.