Former Foes Take Part in Salvadoran Ceremony : Cease-fire: It’s the first time the polarized political forces have met together in their own country in pursuit of a common goal.

Leaders of El Salvador’s left-wing guerrillas, its right-wing armed forces and its civilian political parties joined together Saturday to commence a formal cease-fire in the civil war that has brutalized this country for 12 years.

The ceremony at this capital city’s fairgrounds marked the first time that the polarized political forces have met together in their own country in pursuit of a common goal.

“This is the hour of peace and reconciliation,” guerrilla commander Joaquin Villalobos told a crowd of about 4,000. “The transition will require much patience and tolerance. . . . We must learn to use word against word and not bullets against ideas.”

Armando Calderon Sol, leader of the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena party) added, “Peace is not only the silencing of guns, but the rapprochement of sectors.”

The jubilation was tempered, however, by homage paid to the estimated 75,000 war dead and an awareness throughout the pavilion of the difficulties that lie ahead in recovering from a civil war won by neither side.

“No one and no political force can govern this society by imposing itself by force on the rest,” said leftist political leader Ruben Zamora.

President Alfredo Cristiani swore into office a 10-member commission of guerrilla and army leaders and political party representatives charged with overseeing implementation of the United Nations-brokered peace accords that were signed in Mexico City on Jan. 16.

Under the agreements, guerrillas of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front are to be demobilized by Oct. 31 in exchange for reforms of the country’s armed forces and its judicial and electoral systems. The armed forces are to be reduced in size by half, purged of their worst human rights abusers and made to obey civilian authority.

The army will move its forces into 100 designated zones by Tuesday and the guerrillas will move into 50 zones by Thursday. The United Nations will monitor the cease-fire with about 1,300 observers.

For lack of interest or because they disapprove of what’s happening, many Arena party faithful stayed away from the peace ceremony, making way for enthusiastic guerrilla supporters to dominate the event.

Rebel fans surrounded Villalobos seeking his autograph on their invitations.

Arena supporters who did attend were tight-lipped during the speeches and clearly uncomfortable with the rebel leaders’ return.

They seemed not to notice that Villalobos addressed his remarks to the president, the National Assembly and the Supreme Court--Arena-run institutions that he used to regard as illegitimate.

Gen. Juan Orlando Zepeda, the hard-line vice minister of defense and the army’s representative on the peace commission, made an effort to be moderate, saying that from now on the rebels would be his adversaries rather than enemies.

“The word enemy must disappear from our lexicon. They are going to be our adversaries and maybe our friends in peace,” Zepeda told reporters.

The military was a relatively minor presence in the roomful of legislators, judges, Cabinet members, businessmen, church leaders, foreign diplomats and political activists.

And yet, the degree of militarism that still exists in Salvadoran society was evident in the fact that the greatest applause came with the mention of the names of two symbolic warriors--right-wing leader Roberto D’Aubuisson, founder of the Arena party, and Villalobos, a founder of the guerrilla forces. D’Aubuisson, hospitalized with cancer, was not present at the ceremony.

Rightists rose to their feet in applause when Calderon Sol spoke of what he called D’Aubuisson’s “tireless construction of democracy.”

Rebel supporters who see D’Aubuisson as the founder of right-wing death squads, booed and began shouting “Joaquin! Joaquin!” for Villalobos.

“There are difficult days ahead in the search for consensus, in the passage from violence to peace,” Calderon Sol declared.