Salvador Peace Negotiations Recess on Optimistic Note : Central America: Government and rebels end session without agreement. But a U.N. mediator tells of ‘clear commitment.’ Talks resume in July.

The government of El Salvador and leftist guerrillas ended a week of negotiations Monday without reaching agreement to put an end to the country’s decade-old civil war, but both sides were optimistic about talks scheduled for next month.

United Nations mediator Alvaro de Soto described the negotiations as “positive” and “devoid of rhetoric” and said he believes that the two sides still can meet a mid-September deadline for a cease-fire that was established during their previous talks in Venezuela last month.

“There are still no agreements,” De Soto told reporters. “Nonetheless, there is a clear commitment to reach such agreements within the timetable set in Caracas and there has been movement in that direction unprecedented in the history of contacts between the government and FMLN”--the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, as the rebels call themselves.

The six days of talks, held at this Mexican government resort about 60 miles south of the capital, focused largely on a rebel proposal for reforms of the Salvadoran army and security forces. The guerrilla proposal calls for eliminating infantry units from the police forces, dissolving two of the three national police agencies and restructuring the third under civilian control and dismantling of paramilitary civil defense units that the army has set up throughout the country.

The rebel guerrillas also want a civilian rather than a military defense minister, an end to forced recruitment into the army and the abolition of the army’s elite Atlacatl Battalion, which has been blamed for widespread human rights abuses. Atlacatl troops allegedly were responsible for killing six Jesuit priests during a rebel offensive last November.

Abelardo Torres, a member of the government negotiating team, did not comment directly on the rebel proposal but said: “All issues are still open because we have not reached any conclusions. But we have advanced in narrowing and clarifying our positions.”

Col. Mauricio Vargas, the army’s representative to the government commission, said that the military does not object to civilian control of the police forces but that there is no plan to eliminate any police agencies.

Rebel sources said that during negotiations, the army agreed it could eliminate the Atlacatl Battalion and disarm the civil defense units without disbanding them. But the guerrillas said that response was “unsatisfactory,” and the government agreed to study the guerrilla proposal further, rebel sources said.

The most difficult issue during the round of talks was the first item on the agenda called “impunity.” The guerrillas are calling for prosecutions in four prominent human rights cases which they blame on the army: the 1980 assassination of San Salvador’s Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero; the murder of the 6 Jesuits; the bombing of a leftist labor union headquarters last October that left 10 dead; and the death squad-style slaying in Guatemala of leftist leader Hector Oqueli Colindres last January.

No Salvadoran army officer has ever been convicted of human rights abuse despite the killings of thousands of civilians throughout the war.

Salvadoran officers have said repeatedly that they are not a defeated army and will not accept an Argentine-style prosecution of the military for war crimes.

But the guerrillas are adamant on this point. Although the rebels have accepted responsibility for killing several prominent civilians, including an attorney general, they insist that members of the army must be prosecuted to prove that they cannot kill with impunity.

“Hundreds of members of the FMLN have served time in jail, but only one side has never been brought to justice,” said Salvador Samayoa, a member of the rebel commission.

The government and guerrillas began negotiations last year, but the talks fell apart after a couple of rounds when the government insisted on a cease-fire before it would debate political issues and the rebels called for the resignation of the entire army leadership.

In November, the guerrillas launched their largest offensive of the 10-year war, bringing the capital, San Salvador, to a standstill for 10 days. Hundreds of civilians and combatants died in the fighting and thousands more were wounded.

In April, the two sides met in Geneva and agreed to U.N.-mediated negotiations to end the war and bring the rebels back into the legal political process with guarantees for their safety.

The government and guerrillas met again last month in Caracas and established a mid-September deadline to reach “minimum political agreements” on the armed forces, human rights, and constitutional, judicial and economic reforms before they will engage in a cease-fire. Both sides would keep their guns during the cease-fire while negotiations continued to implement reforms.

If there is a cease-fire and negotiations are progressing, the rebels say they could back their social democratic allies in legislative elections next March.

The rebels have held the threat of another major guerrilla offensive over the talks. On Monday, De Soto appealed to them to refrain from such action before the next round of talks on July 20, which most likely will be held in San Jose, Costa Rica.

International pressures, ranging from the breakup of the East Bloc in Europe to Washington’s threats to cut aid to the Salvadoran government, appear to have convinced both sides that they must negotiate seriously.

“We used to have the idea of reaching power (through negotiations),” said Nidia Diaz, a member of the rebel negotiating team. “Now we are seeking a change in the political situation in general. We don’t necessarily have to be in the government to make those changes.”