Rebels End Transport Ban After Salvador Vote

Leftist guerrillas lifted their four-day transportation ban Monday as violence subsided after El Salvador’s national elections over the weekend, when more than 30 people died.

Rightist Alfredo Cristiani, elected president in the Sunday vote, confirmed that he will seek negotiations with the rebels after taking office, and the Defense Ministry promised to investigate several of the weekend deaths.

Among the deaths to be investigated are those of a Salvadoran photographer and a television sound technician, who were shot by government soldiers, and also an incident in which a Salvadoran army helicopter machine-gunned a car carrying a wounded Dutch cameraman to a hospital after a gun battle between soldiers and rebels. The cameraman died before getting treatment.

The two Salvadorans were buried Monday in a ceremony attended by more than 100 local and foreign journalists.

37 Rebel Deaths Cited

A Defense Ministry bulletin said 37 rebels were killed during the weekend, while the rebels’ Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) said it launched 43 attacks that left 119 soldiers dead or wounded. Neither report could be independently confirmed.

Cristiani, standard-bearer of the far-right Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) said that after he takes office June 1, he wants to negotiate with the rebels to seek a peaceful solution to the war.

“We are ready to forge new political inroads,” Cristiani said. “Arena will promote the continuation of negotiations with the FMLN.”

The rebels Sunday offered to negotiate with the next government on an end the war, but not before the new president is sworn in.

The guerrillas had virtually shut down the transportation system and cut electricity to most of the country to prevent people from voting in the elections, which the FMLN decided to boycott after negotiations for rebel participation in the campaign broke down earlier this month.

In a broadcast on their clandestine Radio Venceremos, the rebels said their four-day transport stoppage was a “military and political victory.”