Salvador Human Rights Gain, Court Told

A U.S. State Department political officer testified Friday in Los Angeles federal court that “the human rights situation has improved dramatically” in El Salvador but refused to answer dozens of questions about military death squads and persecution of civilians.

While conceding that he had “adverse information” about conditions in El Salvador, Charles S. Shapiro, political officer at the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador, claimed executive privilege in refusing to provide any negative details of what the U.S. government knows about human rights violations by the Salvadoran military.

Testifying as a key government witness in a major class-action lawsuit accusing U.S. immigration officials of denying Salvadoran refugees their rights to apply for political asylum, Shapiro painted a generally optimistic picture of conditions in El Salvador for U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon.

“It is a country where the democratic process is gradually getting under way,” he said. “I think that the human rights situation has improved. It has improved less quickly than I would like, but more quickly than I would expect.”

Claims Challenged

While Shapiro testified that political murders in El Salvador have dropped from 800 a month in 1980 to an average of 28 a month last year, he was strongly challenged on his claims that other forms of military repression of the civilian population have also dramatically declined.

Attorney Mark Rosenbaum, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who has been permitted by Kenyon to turn the immigration case into a forum on political conditions inside El Salvador, accused Shapiro of slanting his official reports in favor of the Salvadoran military and failing to make any serious effort to investigate charges of human rights violations.

In one exchange, Rosenbaum sharply questioned Shapiro about the military’s arbitrary relocation of 81 civilian farmers from their town to an “animal stable” in the middle of the country on the pretext that they were being “liberated” from leftist guerrillas. Rosenbaum said they were kept in the stable for five weeks under minimal health and sanitation conditions.

“Do you consider this a human rights violation?” Rosenbaum asked.

Did Not Recall

“In a sense,” said Shapiro, adding that he could not remember if anybody from the embassy had gone to the scene. “They were detained without arrest. But they were treated well.”

Rosenbaum also asked Shapiro about his knowledge of half a dozen Salvadoran military leaders--including Lt. Col Denis Moran, now an attache to the Salvadoran Embassy in Washington--who have been identified as members of right-wing death squads that operated openly in the country in the early 1980s.

“You are aware he (Moran) was involved in the death squads?” Rosenbaum asked.

“I can’t answer that question,” Shapiro said.

“Did you ever submit a document to the White House on death squad members?” Rosenbaum continued.

“I cannot answer that question,” Shapiro repeated.

Lengthy Trial

Kenyon, who has grown increasingly irritated with the State Department during the lengthy trial, at times joined in the questioning of Shapiro and said he thought that the State Department should admit a special U.S. responsibility to Salvadoran refugees for contributing to the “problem” in El Salvador.

“I think we’re contributing to the solution, not the problem,” Shapiro said.

“The guy who’s had his gonads electrified--it would be hard to convince him,” Kenyon shot back.

In defending the record of El Salvador’s military under the leadership of President Jose Napoleon Duarte, Shapiro said he “understood” Kenyon’s concerns, but stressed that the country is more peaceful than in recent years.

“Human rights is part of our policy. It’s not our only policy,” Shapiro said. “I’m proud of what we’ve done in El Salvador. We have helped move that system along to where the human rights situation has improved dramatically.”

Irritated Judge

As Rosenbaum continued his cross-examination of Shapiro, government lawyers attempted to end his testimony by telling Kenyon that the State Department needed the political officer back in El Salvador over the weekend, a move that irritated Kenyon even more.

Ordering Shapiro back to court on Monday, Kenyon accused the State Department of considering itself more important than other agencies or individuals who appear in the courts.

“This situation is grossly unfair,” he said. “This is a real pressure job that’s been put on for this witness. It’s a kind of stonewall. I see no grounds for letting this witness go.”

Kenyon may also rule Monday on the question of executive privilege raised during Shapiro’s testimony. Rosenbaum proposed that the impasse could be resolved by taking some of Shapiro’s testimony in private to make sure that no national security interests are violated.