Salvador Civilians Flee as Rebel Positions Are Strafed

Thousands of civilians waving white flags fled their embattled neighborhoods Tuesday as the armed forces declared an around-the-clock curfew in one-third of metropolitan San Salvador and stepped up aerial strafing of guerrilla positions.

Panic erupted in several neighborhoods as word spread that the army was preparing to move against the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front rebels who had staked out positions in public housing complexes.

The army fired rockets at hills on the northern edge of the capital on the fourth day of the rebels’ biggest urban offensive in 10 years of war. The fighting showed no sign of abating.

Civilian and military casualties continued to rise. Hospitals and forensic officials reported at least 180 dead and 680 wounded. The army and guerrillas put the toll higher.

In a communique read over their clandestine Radio Venceremos, rebel commanders vowed to push the offensive “to its ultimate consequences.”

Having enforced a nationwide traffic ban for two days, the rebels called a general strike and threatened any businesses that oblige their employees to work. They also urged supporters to form “popular governments” in territory that they claim to control in eight of the country’s 14 provinces.

Since Sunday, the country has been under a state of siege that suspends constitutional guarantees and gives the government control over all licensed news broadcasts. A nationwide dusk-to-dawn curfew is in force.

The armed forces expanded the curfew Tuesday in seven densely populated neighborhoods on the northern and eastern edges of the capital--Ilopango, Soyapango, Santa Lucia, Mejicanos, Zacamil, Ayutuxtepeque and Ciudad Delgado.

Residents were ordered to stay off the streets at all hours, a measure that effectively made those poor and working-class areas free-fire zones. The area is home to about half of San Salvador’s 2.5 million people.

The army’s action, coupled with reports of aerial strafing, drew cries of alarm from international human rights organizations. Americas Watch, a New York-based group, urged U.S. Ambassador William Walker to support its call that the army refrain from “indiscriminate attacks” that threaten civilian life. It urged the guerrillas to take similar precautions.

Army and government officials charged that the rebels are using civilians as shields and said the military is taking precautions to avoid civilian casualties. Army spokesman Col. Raul Arturo Lopez said the curfew “allows us to carry out our actions with as little risk as possible” to civilians.

The expanded curfew was announced early Tuesday. Men and women, many of whom have gone for days without food, ran out of their neighborhoods carrying babies, dogs and paper bags with a few meager belongings.

“They told us to get out,” cried 15-year-old Cristina Hernandez in the northern neighborhood of Zacamil. “The army is coming.”

“We don’t have any food,” shouted an elderly woman carrying her parakeet.

Outside Soyapango, men caught away from home stood helplessly on the roadside watching a C-47 gunship pour fire on communities where their families were stranded. In the distance, a spotter plane fired rockets at suspected rebel positions on the slope of San Jacinto volcano, just beyond a populated area.

“I haven’t had any information about my family in four days,” said Carlos Lareynaga, 45, a resident of Norwalk, Calif., who was traveling from San Salvador to Soyapango. “I have four children, my wife and a grandson there. I came to see my children for the first time since I left five years ago. . . . I never imagined the situation would be so delicate.”

President Alfredo Cristiani, in his first news conference since the offensive began, denied that the rebels hold any territory and said their assault has not threatened his right-wing government. But a Western diplomat said the guerrillas have the military initiative.

“The guerrillas are clearly on the offensive,” he said. “The army’s been held at bay for 60 hours. . . . The curfew means they (the army) don’t have control.”

To dramatize their presence and explain their offensive, four rebel commanders held an hourlong press conference in an apartment building in Zacamil.

“We’ve had a series of victories in the countryside, but this is history,” said a rebel who goes by the name of Amilcar. “We’re in the city because it’s the heart of the enemy. This is the economic, political and military heart.”

The rebel commanders said they had many combatants fighting for the first time in this offensive. They claimed they have enough firepower and stamina to continue indefinitely.