U.S. Seeking Probe of Alleged Rights Abuses in Salvador

The State Department said Tuesday that it has asked the Salvadoran government to investigate reports that the Salvadoran army has engaged in human rights abuses.

“We are very concerned about these reports and have urged that every effort be made to investigate and prosecute all political violence and intimidation,” spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley said.

The archbishop of San Salvador has accused soldiers of killing five peasants in the eastern part of the country, and, according to a published report, other soldiers slashed the throats of three suspected leftist guerrillas.

Oakley said the Reagan Administration has not yet concluded that the human rights situation in El Salvador has deteriorated, because the circumstances surrounding some incidents are unclear.

“We have expressed the U.S. government’s strong interest in these investigations,” she said. “Some of the recent reports appear to be guerrilla-inspired fabrications aimed at discrediting President (Jose Napoleon) Duarte’s elected government.”