Arias Calls on Salvadoran Foes to Declare Holiday Truce, Hold Talks : Central America: Costa Rica’s president submits his peace proposal at a summit of the region’s leaders.

President Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica urged the Salvadoran government and leftist guerrillas Sunday to declare a Christmas cease-fire after the bloodiest month of combat in that country’s decade-old civil war.

Arias made the appeal in a proposal submitted at a meeting here of the five Central American presidents. He called on the two sides in El Salvador to stop fighting from Tuesday through Jan. 15 and begin peace talks with the mediation of the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the Roman Catholic Church.

The United Nations should also ensure that the Nicaraguan government does not supply weapons or logistical support to the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front rebels in El Salvador, according to the Costa Rican proposal.

The presidents’ two-day summit meeting is a last-ditch effort to save the crippled Central American peace plan that earned the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for Arias. Tensions in the region are the highest since the peace plan was signed in August, 1987, and fighting has increased in Nicaragua as well as El Salvador.

Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani announced last month that he was pulling out of a meeting scheduled to be held in Managua after a Nicaraguan plane crashed in eastern El Salvador that apparently was carrying sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons to the Salvadoran guerrillas.

Cristiani has accused the Nicaraguan government of arming the rebels for their major offensive that began Nov. 11. Such support would violate the peace plan.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega agreed to hold the summit in Costa Rica. But Ortega is protesting that the Honduran government has violated the peace plan by failing to disarm and evict the U.S.-backed Contras from their base camps along Honduras’ border with Nicaragua.

On Nov. 1, Ortega declared an end to a 19-month cease-fire after Contras infiltrated into Nicaragua and launched several attacks. He accused the Bush Administration of ordering the raids to disrupt upcoming elections.

The U.S. government, which halted military aid to the Contras in 1988 but still provides so-called humanitarian aid, wants the rebel force left intact until the Feb. 25 presidential election in Nicaragua.

Before the summit, President Arias lambasted the United States and the Soviet Union for their continued support of insurgencies in Central America. He appeared to support a proposal by United Nations Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar calling for the superpowers to play a more active role in Central American peace efforts.

Costa Rican Foreign Minister Rodrigo Madrigal said at the conference Sunday, “We must demand from them a definition of their roles and what they have done themselves or through other countries to (push) a negotiation.”

Arias put his cease-fire proposal on the table along with proposals from Salvadoran President Cristiani and the guerrillas, but none appeared headed for success.

Last week, Cristiani offered to resume peace talks with the rebels on Dec. 20 if they ceased military attacks in civilian areas by next Friday.

The rebel offensive, the largest in the history of the war, has been fought largely in residential neighborhoods of the capital and the cities of San Miguel, Usulutan and Zacatecoluca. It triggered a fierce response from the armed forces, including urban aerial attacks from helicopters and fixed-wing warplanes.

During the offensive, six Jesuit priests, their cook and her daughter were murdered in the residence area of the Central American University. Church officials blame the killings on rightists within the military or close to it.

The murders, committed in a heavily militarized zone during a nighttime curfew, have earned international condemnation and brought pressure on the Cristiani government for a negotiated solution to the war.

The rebels did not respond directly to Cristiani’s cease-fire proposal, but they are not likely to withdraw from the cities after what they consider a successful military offensive.

Rather, the guerrillas countered with their own proposal Sunday calling for an immediate cease-fire in situ (in place) supervised by international organizations.

The guerrillas said the cease-fire must be accompanied by a lifting of the state of siege imposed during the offensive, suspension of a new anti-terrorist law that restricts freedoms of speech and press and the removal of seven top military officers.

This is the first time the rebels have specified the officers they want ousted. Among them are the armed forces chief of staff, Col. Rene Emilio Ponce; the air force commander, Gen. Juan Rafael Bustillo; the vice minister of defense, Col. Juan Orlando Zepeda, and the Treasury police chief, Col. Heriberto Hernandez.

The rebels accused the officers of responsibility for bombings during the offensive and for the murder of the Jesuits.

The armed forces high command has denied responsibility for the killings and says it is investigating the case. It also declares that the makeup of the military leadership is non-negotiable.

Cristiani’s spokesman, Mauricio Sandoval, rejected the guerrillas’ proposal as “extemporaneous” and “more of the same.”

The defense minister, Gen. Rafael Humberto Larios, said, “The armed forces have absolutely no agreements to make with the guerrillas.”

Arias’ proposal calls on the two sides to meet in Caracas, Venezuela, where they were supposed to hold peace talks last month. The rebels called off the negotiations after a bomb exploded in the headquarters of a leftist labor union in San Salvador, killing 10 people. They launched the offensive shortly thereafter.

Arias also urged the Nicaraguan government to renew a unilateral cease-fire, but officials of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front rejected the idea. The proposal calls for the Contras to remain in their Honduran camps under United Nations supervision until they can be disbanded.

Sandinista sources said they have little hope that sufficient pressure can be brought on the United States and Honduras to demobilize the Contras before the February elections.