Salvador Reportedly Plans to Complete Purge of Officers, but Not Until 1994

The government of El Salvador has proposed a staggered timetable for a purge of officers accused of human rights violations that should have been completed last week, sources at the United Nations said Tuesday.

Under U.N.-brokered accords signed last January ending 12 years of civil war, more than 100 officers implicated in human rights violations were to have been purged by the end of 1992, either by being removed from the armed forces or posted to less important positions.

Under the proposed timetable, those expulsions would not be completed until May, 1994.

President Alfredo Cristiani, eager to avoid unrest in the politically powerful armed forces, is due to end his term of office in June, 1994.

The purge list, drawn up by a three-man civilian panel, is widely believed to include the defense minister, Gen. Rene Emilio Ponce, and his deputy, Gen. Juan Orlando Zepeda.

Former rebels of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front last month disarmed their 8,000-strong guerrilla force while retaining a cache of antiaircraft missiles they vowed to keep until the army purge is complete.

A confidential document containing the proposal for extending the purge deadline was given to senior U.N. officials by a delegation including Presidency Minister Oscar Santamaria and Gen. Mauricio Vargas, the armed forces’ deputy chief of staff.

The proposal is said to provide for officers to be separated from the service in stages, until the purge is completed in May next year.

Some would leave the armed forces as alternative employment becomes available and some when their length of service qualifies them for pensions, the sources said.