Purge of Salvadoran Officers Fails to Punish 15, U.N. Says

The United Nations has determined that Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani’s formula for purging the powerful armed forces of human rights abusers is incomplete and fails to adequately punish 15 key officers.

Cristiani has said his plan is a final offer and that he will not negotiate further--even if it means U.N. condemnation or losing vital U.S. economic aid.

The purge is a crucial element of peace accords that ended this country’s 12-year civil war and is seen as a test of whether the military that has long dominated Salvadoran society can be brought under civilian control.

In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said Cristiani has successfully purged 87 officers from the armed forces, following the recommendations of a three-member civilian commission assigned to review the military as part of the peace accords. But measures taken in regard to 15 other officers--whom the commission wanted purged--are insufficient, he said in the letter, dated Jan. 7 and made public Monday.

The 15 include eight officers--among them Defense Minister Gen. Rene Emilio Ponce--whom Cristiani wants to keep until the end of his presidency in 1994. The other seven are officers Cristiani wants to send to overseas posts as embassy attaches.

“From the beginning, I have been very aware that this aspect of the peace accord is especially difficult and sensitive,” Boutros-Ghali said. “However, with the measures adopted with respect to (the 15) officers, the recommendations (of the purge commission) are not fulfilled, and, as a result, they are not compatible with the peace accord.”

He said he has asked Cristiani to take the steps that would separate the 15 officers from duty “as soon as possible.”

Cristiani, in a news conference, seemed to brush off the U.N. determination, saying he believes his formula obeys the spirit, “if not in every case the letter,” of the accords.

He said he did not consider Boutros-Ghali’s statement a judgment of noncompliance but simply a request that he make adjustments. Asked then if he would take more measures involving the 15 officers in question, Cristiani said there will be no “major change” in his plan. He would not elaborate.

In an interview last week with The Times and two other U.S. newspapers, Cristiani said he will not change his formula, which lets some officers retire during a six-month period, gives others scholarships to start new careers and preserves a core of eight upper-echelon officers. A total of 102 officers were named by the purge commission.

Cristiani argued that the phased plan is necessary to avoid unrest in the armed forces and to prevent protracted legal battles by targeted officers.

As news of the incomplete purge became public last week, it triggered a wave of protest here and abroad. In the U.S. Congress, where aid to El Salvador is conditioned on full compliance with the peace accords, there was talk of freezing aid until the purge is complete. In San Salvador, a group of leftist political parties is planning a protest march to the Presidential House today.