Salvador, Rebels Agree on Merged National Police

El Salvador’s government and the leftist rebels agreed Tuesday that the guerrillas will be incorporated into a new national police force, thus safeguarding their entry into the political process.

Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani and the military commanders of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, continued working with U.N. mediators Tuesday to iron out other issues and sign a communique, diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

El Salvador’s constitution will be amended to separate the national police from the Defense Ministry, which is currently in charge of all the country’s security forces.

The political independence of the new police force, which will be partly composed of FMLN officers and opposition political figures, is intended to make it free of the army’s influence and thus able to safeguard the public, diplomats said.

The FMLN had originally sought incorporation into the army, with its officers inserted right up to the command level. But the Salvadoran government rejected that option.

U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar instead proposed the creation of the new national police force as a compromise.

The government and FMLN negotiators agreed to continue working on other issues, such as purging the army of rights abusers, and to meet with the secretary general again Oct. 15, diplomats said.

The eight days of negotiations were an attempt to reach agreements in principle on ways of reassuring the rebels that they will be safe if they disarm and join the political process, thus ending the 12-year-old civil war.

This round of talks is intended to set up a final negotiating session planned for later this autumn, at which a permanent truce would be adopted and a complete political settlement would be agreed upon.

Perez de Cuellar agreed to mediate the talks at the request of the United States and Soviet Union.

In a speech to the General Assembly on Monday, President Cristiani said that at that point, “We have made important progress in negotiations to ensure that 1991 will be the year of peace.

“Total agreement for an end to the conflict may be a reality in the very near future,” Cristiani said.

Perez de Cuellar was more cautious on Monday, saying that “roadblocks still remain.” Representatives of the FMLN gave a similar assessment.

The parties hammered away at the details around the clock, with one meeting of the five FMLN commanders with the Salvadoran government’s mediators running from 1:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The parties were meeting again Tuesday afternoon with negotiators from Cristiani’s government, and with the “four friends” who are assisting the talks--the ambassadors of Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia and Spain.

Fighting between the rebels and a succession of U.S.-backed Salvadoran governments has killed an estimated 75,000 people, most of them civilians, in the Central American nation of 5.2 million.