a042  0343  23 Mar 90
PM-Salvador,0524
Rights Group: Violations at Worst Levels Since Early 1980s
By DOUGLAS GRANT MINE
Associated Press Writer
    SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - Respect for human rights in the
war-ravaged nation has deteriorated to its lowest level since death
squads killed thousands in the early 1980s, a U.S. monitoring
organization reported.
    Americas Watch said in a 272-page report issued Thursday that the
deterioration underscores ''the failure of U.S. human rights policy
in El Salvador throughout the decade.''
    Washington has provided $3.8 billion in aid to El Salvador since
1980, but several U.S. congressmen have expressed reluctance to
continue the funding.
    The report contends there has been an increase in torture by
security forces, escalation of death-squad activity, assassination of
civilian officials by leftist rebels, indiscriminate use of homemade
guerrilla mortars and several instances of massacres by government
troops.
    The November offensive by fighters of the Farabundo Marti National
Liberation Front, of FMLN, signalled the worsening in human rights
conditions, according to the report.
    ''The military crisis exacerbated tensions within the military and
thrust extremist elements to the fore. The rhetoric of high officials
reflected the charged intensity of the moment, and spurred some units
to engage in lawless actions. Targeted killings by both the Armed
Forces and the FMLN increased,'' it said.
    The report cites the Nov. 16 murder by army troops of six Jesuit
educators, their housekeeper and her daughter at Central American
University as cause ''to wonder at how little things have actually
changed in El Salvador.''
    A colonel, three lieutenants and four soldiers have been arrested
and charged in the Jesuit massacre.
    ''Despite limited progress in the prosecuttion of the Jesuit case,
there is a real danger that the true authors of crime may not have
been identified, and that the highest ranking officer implicated so
far will not be convicted or punished,'' said Americas Watch, which
is based in New York.
    Between 1980 and 1984, officially sponsored or tolerated right-wing
death squads killed up to 30,000 suspected leftists.
    ''While the numbers of targeted killings in recent years do not
approach the carnage of the early 1980s, the trend has not been
towards steady improvement,'' the report said.
    ''Moreover, declining numbers of political murders do not indicate
greater respect for human rights within the armed forces or enhanced
freedom to express political dissent. The level of violence is still
such that it is dangerous to express certain views or maintain
certain associations.''
    The report recalls the March 24, 1980 assassination of Archbishop
Oscar Arnulfo Romero. Though evidence implicating extreme rightists
was compiled by the 1984-89 Christian Democratic government, no one
has been charged with involvement in that murder.
    ''The murder of Archbishop Romero in 1980 and the slaying of the
Jesuits in 1989 stand as bookends to the decade offering harsh
testimony about who really rules El Salvador and how little they have
changed. Ten years later, priest-killing is still a preferred option
for those who simply will not hear the cries for change and justice
in a society that has had too little of either,'' the report said.
    
 
AP-NY-03-23-90 0632EST
***************

a054  0508  23 Mar 90
PM-US-El Salvador,0524
Democrats Moving to Cut Aid to El Salvador
By JOAN MOWER
Associated Press Writer
    WASHINGTON (AP) - Sentiment is growing among congressional Democrats
to cut aid to El Salvador.
    Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Appropriations
subcommittee on foreign operations, became the latest lawmaker to
complain that millions of dollars have done little to end the civil
war or improve the Central American country's human rights record.
    After 10 years and $3.8 billion, ''In many ways we are pretty much
at ground zero,'' Obey said Thursday. ''I don't want to be in the
perpetual motion of throwing money down a rat hole.''
    Obey said he sees little improvement in the country where between
40,000 and 50,000 people have been killed in the last decade.
    ''I personally don't feel I can vote for Salvador money,'' he said.
    Bernard Aronson, assistant secretary of state for inter-American
affairs, urged caution in testimony to Obey's subcommittee. He said
prospects have never been better for a negotiated settlement between
the Salvadoran government and the left-wing rebels of the Farabundo
Marti National Liberation Front, known as the FMLN.
    The two sides say they will begin negotiations next month as a first
step toward ending the war.
    Moreover, Aronson said the ouster of the leftist Sandinista
government in Nicaragua that supported the Salvadoran rebels
eventually should weaken the FMLN.
    ''Let's not rush to do something that would screw this up,'' he
said. ''I think we can end this war.''
    Obey also questioned whether the government of President Alfredo
Cristiani is able to exercise enough control over the Salvadoran
military to proceed with negotiations. ''There is a high degree of
dubiousness and I share it,'' he said.
    Obey joins a number of House members and senators who have raised
questions about the aid and suggested cutting it or making it
conditional on a cease-fire or improvement in human rights.
    Heightened interest in the subject comes at the 10th anniversary of
the slaying of Archbishop Oscar Romero in San Salvador. His unsolved
killing and the resurgence of right-wing death squads prompted the
United States to throw its support behind the centrist government in
1980.
    Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and John Kerry, D-Mass., have
introduced different bills that would place new conditions on
Salvadoran aid.
    Rep. Joe Moakley, D-Mass., head of a congressional task force on El
Salvador, wants to cut aid by 50 percent based on a negotiated
cease-fire. If the government broke the cease-fire, all aid would
end. If the rebels violated the agreement, the government could
realize 100 percent of its aid.
    Meantime, Moakley's task force interviewed a U.S. Army major about
his knowledge of possible Salvadoran military involvement in the
killing of six Jesuit priests in San Salvador last Nov. 16.
    Moakley said details of the meeting were secret, but lawmakers
wanted to interview the man face-to-face. The task force plans to
issue a report on the killings in a few weeks.
    The United States is providing El Salvador with about $315 million
in economic and military aid in the current fiscal year, and the
administration is seeking about $375 million for fiscal 1991, which
begins Oct. 1.
    
 
AP-NY-03-23-90 0756EST
***************