Refugee Convoy Crosses Into Salvador

SAN SALVADOR — A convoy carrying about 1,200 Salvadoran refugees home from Honduras crossed into El Salvador on Sunday without a team of foreign observers denied entry to the war-scarred country, a United Nations refugee official said.

The official, Roberto Rodriguez, said the refugees passed through the El Poy border crossing after the international observers agreed to stay in Honduras.

The convoy had been stuck at the remote border stop since Saturday after Salvadoran officials refused to let the 35 observers--primarily from U.S. religious organizations--into the country.

The refugees, some of whom had spent eight years in a U.N. refugee camp in Honduras, fled El Salvador to escape the civil war. They were the second major group to return since the signing last year of a Central American peace plan.