CIVIL WAR : Discord on Basic Issues Still Bars Way to Salvadoran Peace

El Salvador’s brutal civil war is far from over, despite an agreement between the right-wing government and a radical leftist guerrilla force that kept the process open for a negotiated settlement but failed to address major disputes.

Negotiators for President Alfredo Cristiani and senior commanders of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front signed an accord in Mexico City last weekend that would reform to some degree El Salvador’s judicial system and recast the relationship between the government and the powerful military.

But the agreement, which changes 35 of 274 articles of the current constitution, failed to settle fundamental issues concerning a real, immediate reduction of the military’s power and the terms of a cease-fire.

“What was accomplished in Mexico was essential,” said a diplomat interviewed by telephone from San Salvador, “but they are a long way from ending the killing.”

The accord calls for expanding a council that governs elections to five members from three, including for the first time members of a political party that represents to some degree the interests of the FMLN, as the guerrilla movement is known.

The other parts of the pact include separating the police from the military, moving control of the national intelligence service from the army to the presidency, giving the president formal control of the armed forces, establishing a system for judicial reform and creation of a “public defender for human rights.”

The two sides also agreed on a “truth commission” to investigate the most serious cases of human rights abuses. That body, however, would have no power to force witnesses to testify nor could it bring anyone to trial.

The constitutional changes were ratified by the outgoing National Assembly on Monday and Tuesday but must be approved again by a new Assembly.

But if that ratification comes--and it is expected within two weeks--the fighting will still go on until a cease-fire is approved after peace talks resume, probably late this month, FMLN leaders say. (Cristiani, in a speech Tuesday, reaffirmed that the reforms will occur only once there is a cease-fire.) So far, the 11-year civil war has claimed as many as 75,000 fatal victims, human rights groups report.

Of the remaining areas of disagreement, the two most serious are the terms of a cease-fire itself and an immediate and meaningful reduction of both the size and influence of the armed forces.

The guerrillas, who number about 7,000 fighters plus 40,000 active civilian supporters, argue that the change in the constitution giving the president more control over the military is not enough to justify a cease-fire. Before calling off the fighting, they want a serious cut in the 57,000-member government military, including the removal of many senior officers and the prosecution of personnel accused of severe human rights abuses.

The military will resist any serious reduction in manpower or influence.

Further, major radical elements of Cristiani’s own political party, the Nationalist Republican Alliance, and hard-line troop commanders argue there is no need for any cease-fire short of a guerrilla surrender since they believe the rebels can be defeated militarily.

As to the cease-fire, the guerrillas, who now operate freely in about a third of the country, say they will accept an accord in which armed forces of both sides will be restricted to small “zones of control.”

“If Cristiani can hold his people together and the Americans can pressure the military into accepting the idea that U.S. aid will be cut off if they don’t get in line and they can’t win, then maybe a cease-fire can be signed,” said one diplomat. “But would I bet on it? No.”