Salvador Court Rejects Rights Panel Findings

The Salvadoran Supreme Court rejected Friday the findings of a report on human rights violations that recommended, among other things, the removal of the justices.

The court disputed the Truth Commission’s finding that the judges obstructed investigations into some of the rights violations during the past decade, when the U.S.-backed Salvadoran government battled leftist guerrillas.

A statement by the court said the report “passes over the legitimate and permanent interests of the country and seriously threatens the independence of the judges, who must always be free from all political pressure.”

The court’s is the latest official rebuff by Salvadoran officials of the controversial report, released earlier this month as part of a 1992 U.N. peace accord that ended 12 years of civil war.

Even before the report was made public, President Alfredo Cristiani recommended amnesty for everyone mentioned in it. Last weekend, the amnesty measure was whisked through the National Assembly, controlled by Cristiani’s conservative Arena party and its backers. The report recommended the removal of many military officers, the Supreme Court judges and a 10-year ban on political office-holding for others, including some former guerrillas.

The seven-month inquiry that led to the report determined that the military and rightist death squads were behind about 95% of human rights violations.