Salvador Rebels List Cease-Fire Demands

Leftist Salvadoran rebels, taking a hard-line position in peace talks with the U.S.-backed government, Friday demanded trials in the deaths of civilians killed in the civil war and disbanding of the armed forces in exchange for a cease-fire.

El Salvador’s government and the guerrillas met for their fourth round of U.N.-brokered peace talks, with little hope of making progress toward ending the 10-year civil war.

Delegates from the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) rebels and the rightist government of President Alfredo Cristiani are to meet for six days, with the thorny question of the Salvadoran armed forces again dominating the agenda.

The rebel negotiating team, stung by internal criticism of a human rights accord reached at the last round of talks in July, is eager to break a deadlock over the entrenched power of the U.S.-backed military.

In an outline of the FMLN negotiating position released in San Jose, the rebels listed 18 points that they described as prerequisites for a cease-fire:

--Trials for those responsible in the deaths of 50,000 civilians since 1979, for which they blamed the security forces and right-wing death squads.

--The dissolution of police, paramilitary forces and the military in return for the disbanding of rebel forces.

--The naming of a special tribunal named by the government, rebels and political parties to judge cases of military “impunity.”

FMLN chief negotiator Jorge Shafik Handal, arriving at the meeting Friday, said he would seek a revision of the July accord. He said also that he bore “concrete and flexible” proposals for weeding out human rights violators from the military.

Col. Mauricio Vargas, military representative in the government delegation, said he did not think Handal’s plan would be popular with the United Nations, whose envoy, Alvaro de Soto, is mediating the talks.

Earlier, the Salvadoran government’s chief negotiator said it is ready to bring a swift halt to the war.

“The government of President Cristiani is interested in conciliation in matters regarding the reorganization of the armed forces that would allow a pact to end armed hostilities,” said Oscar Santamaria, leader of the government delegation and Salvadoran justice minister.

On Thursday, about 5,000 people marched in San Salvador to demand progress in the talks, indicating growing civilian impatience about delays in ending the civil war.

Watchdog groups have estimated that 72,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict and rejected as an “outrage” the army’s assertion Thursday that only 32,531 people had died.