Salvadoran Rebels Call Cease-Fire in Civil War : Central America: They’ll halt offensive operations tonight. President Cristiani doesn’t reciprocate.

El Salvador’s top guerrilla leaders announced Thursday that they will halt all offensive military operations indefinitely in an effort to end more than 11 years of civil war.

The five commanders of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front said that the unilateral cease-fire will begin at midnight tonight and remain in effect until a peace agreement is signed with the U.S.-backed government.

In San Salvador, President Alfredo Cristiani hailed the rebel decision as “a sign of goodwill that allows us to reach a definitive cease-fire in the shortest time possible.” But he did not make a reciprocal offer to halt operations in the conflict, which has taken an estimated 75,000 lives in both military action and assassinations.

The leftist rebels made their announcement at a press conference in Mexico City, where they have been meeting with the government and U.N. representatives on a peace accord. Both sides said the negotiations are progressing to their final stage and that they expect an agreement by year’s end.

Flanked by his four colleagues, the guerrilla’s Schafik Jorge Handal read an official communique:

“The (Farabundo Marti) general command agrees unilaterally to suspend all offensive actions, urban operations and economic sabotage throughout national territory as of zero hours on Nov. 16, 1991.”

He said the rebel leadership will “make all necessary efforts to prolong this suspension until the signing of a definitive cease-fire” and would resume operations “only in the case of substantial altercations that affect the advance of negotiations. . . .”

Joaquin Villalobos, considered the rebels’ chief military strategist, added that “from now on, military pressure is a last resort.”

Earlier this week, Cristiani had threatened to break off negotiations because of what he called a rebel military offensive. The guerrillas insisted that they were carrying out routine operations.

Villalobos said the guerrillas’ decision to suspend operations was calculated to weaken extreme rightists and “a minority opposed to peace” who had been pressuring Cristiani to leave the bargaining table. He said the rebels want to remove any pretext for government military offensives or retribution against leftist political and labor leaders inside the country.

A member of the official delegation conceded that the government is under increased pressure at home but insisted that it is not just from extreme minorities. “My wife calls and says, ‘What the hell are you doing up there, (there are) bombs going off here.’ And she’s not an extremist,” he said.

He said the rebels are paying a political price for their sabotage of the country’s electrical system and coffee-processing plants and that several civilians have been killed in recent combat.

The government and guerrillas have been negotiating under the direction of the United Nations since April, 1990. They were deadlocked for a time over the rebels’ insistence that their troops be incorporated into the armed forces. But that demand was dropped, and the two sides signed a general agreement on Sept. 25 in New York to end the war.

That agreement, hammered out by U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, calls for a reduction of the 57,000-strong Salvadoran military and the formation of a civilian national police force that would accept applicants from all sectors, including the rebels.

It also calls for the formation of a commission to oversee the “purification” of the Salvadoran military, which has been accused of sweeping human rights abuses, and another commission--to include the government, rebels and political parties--to guarantee the safety of guerrillas as they return to civilian life.

The latest round of talks here have focused on the size of the army, the makeup of the commission that will decide who must be purged from the armed forces and on control of the new police force.

At least in the short term, as they reincorporate into public life, the rebels view a police force that includes former guerrillas as a counterbalance to the army. The army says it will not consider giving the rebels quotas within the police.

While applauding the guerrillas’ cease-fire, the United Nations’ Perez de Cuellar cautioned that “important points still remain to be negotiated” for a permanent peace.

But he said, “If the attitude of the principals is translated into genuine restraint on the ground, it could well mark the beginning of the end of this long conflict.”

The rebels have called several cease-fires throughout the war, but always for a limited period. In the past their initiatives have been dismissed by the government as political maneuvers.

This time, Oscar Santamaria, the head of the government negotiating team, called the cease-fire a “transcendental step in creating the atmosphere needed for this process.”

The guerrillas urged the government to respond to their initiative with a cease-fire of its own.

Col. Mauricio Vargas, the army’s representative on the government’s negotiating team, said the military will be watching to see what the rebels do in the field.

“We have to act according to military logic. If there is no aggression . . . without a doubt our profile of actions has to be lower,” Vargas said.

Rebel leaders said their troops will take up defensive positions in guerrilla strongholds while awaiting a final agreement.

“This is the end of combat, but the end of the war is something more complex,” said Handal. “War is a social, political and military phenomenon. A (permanent) cease-fire is the end of the war.”

The United States has spent more than $4 billion in support of the Salvadoran government during the war. Legislation to restrict delivery of military aid and to allow it to be channeled into peaceful uses was introduced in the House on Thursday in Washington.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Mass.) and 15 other members of both parties, including Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, would require the Administration to get approval from four congressional committees before releasing aid.

Under the bill, aid in excess of the $21 million in military assistance now allotted could be transferred by the President to a fund established by Congress for demobilizing, retraining and relocating former fighters.