It’s a Little Early to Forgive : Salvadoran president seems ready to let those accused of war atrocities go scot-free

Bringing peace and reconciliation to El Salvador will be no easy task. It also can’t be done quickly. That’s just one reason the haste with which President Alfredo Cristiani is moving to implement a blanket amnesty for civil war combatants accused of human rights violations is so troubling.

Late last year a peace agreement between Cristiani’s U.S.-backed government and a coalition of leftist rebels was brokered by the United Nations. A key section of that agreement called for the establishment of a three-member Truth Commission charged with investigating some of the shocking incidents that took place during the civil war, including the murder of priests and nuns and massacres in peasant villages. That commission found both sides guilty of atrocities but placed far greater blame on the Salvadoran military.

El Salvador’s military leaders almost immediately denounced the commission’s report and began demanding an amnesty. It would have been difficult for Cristiani and other leaders of the Arena party, who have relied on retired and active military personnel for a significant part of their political support, to resist such pressure. But they didn’t even make a pretense of resisting. Arena deputies, who dominate the National Assembly, pushed an amnesty law through in days, and Cristiani has already begun to act under it. Just last week he freed from prison two officers who were convicted of murdering six Jesuits in one of the civil war’s most appalling atrocities.

The Clinton Administration has properly criticized the Salvadoran amnesty, warning through a State Department spokesman that “future human rights violators must not believe that they can act with impunity.” Given the frequency, and brutality, with which Salvadoran military men have interfered in that country’s political affairs for the last 60 years, that is not a warning to be taken lightly. If Cristiani moves forward with the amnesty despite widespread international criticism, the U.S. government should be prepared to back up its words by withholding all future military and civilian aid to El Salvador.

Few families in a nation of only 5 million people could have been left untouched by 12 years of warfare and political violence. So one can understand why many Salvadorans feel that both sides of the conflict must be prepared to forgive and forget in order to begin the process of healing. But if national reconciliation is to be genuine and lasting, there must also be a decent interval before any amnesty is declared--not just to mourn but to ponder the awful truths about the civil war that are only now coming to light.