** Topic: SALPRESS News 01/20/91 ** ** Written 5:28 pm Jan 23, 1991 by salpress in cdp:reg.elsalvador ** NEWS SERVICE ON EL SALVADOR for WEEKEND UPDATE, JANUARY 18-20, 1991 A Special Service of SALPRESS BISHOP SAYS AVERTED ATTENTION ENDANGERS HUMAN RIGHTS Human rights violations in El Salvador may worsen because world attention has shifted to the Persian Gulf war, according to San Salvador's auxiliary bishop, Gregorio Rosa Chavez. In his January 20 homily, the bishop expressed fears that the Middle East conflict will allow repression in El Salvador to rise. He said that the 28 deaths over the last week of the Salvadoran price is "a high price to pay for not yet having obtained peace." On January 18, the independent Human Rights Commission (CDHES) revealed that 1005 civilians were killed by the Salvadoran army in 1990. The commission blamed another 27 deaths on the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and 189 on death squads, defined as armed men in plainclothes. The CDHES was unable to attribute 102 civilian deaths to either side. November and December were reported as particularly fatal months, with 115 and 118 civilian deaths. Over these two months the army allegedly killed 97 civilians and the FMLN, four. ****************************************************************** /** reg.elsalvador: 219.0 **/ ** Topic: SALPRESS News 01/23/91 ** ** Written 5:33 pm Jan 23, 1991 by salpress in cdp:reg.elsalvador ** NEWS SERVICE ON EL SALVADOR for WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1991 A Special Service of SALPRESS PEASANTS MASSACRED Five men dressed in black shot, stabbed and hacked to death 15 peasants in El Zapote, three miles northwest of the capital in the pre-dawn hours yesterday, according to a child who escaped harm about hiding under a bed. The victims, seven men and eight women, ranged in age from 14 to 70. Some were found slain in their beds; others had their hands tied behind their backs. The massacre took place in a division of ten straw and mud homes. The army press office yesterday reported that the peasants were killed in a feud between two families, however, the independent Human Rights Commission (CDHES) said today that the massacre appears to be the work of a right-wing death squad because of the characteristic beheading of some of the victims. 7,500 DISAPPEARED SINCE '78 The Committee of Relatives of Political Prisoners and Disappeared Persons (CODEFAM) said yesterday that the army has caused the disappearance of roughly 7,500 persons for political reasons in El Salvador since 1978. According to CODEFAM's Guadalupe Quintana, 161 persons disappeared in 1990. CODEFAM is one of several groups calling on the government of Alfredo Cristiani to uphold the United Nations' conventions on forced disappearances, by preventing and punishing the human rights violation. NEWS SYNTHESIS ON EL SALVADOR is a special service of SALPRESS, available Monday through Friday. For more details on information included in this summary, contact SALPRESS: 011-525-705-6532 (fax) or 011-525-592-2184 (voice). ** End of text from cdp:reg.elsalvador ** -- Transfer complete, hit to continue -- ****************************************************************** /** reg.elsalvador: 218.0 **/ ** Topic: SALPRESS News 01/22/91 ** ** Written 5:31 pm Jan 23, 1991 by salpress in cdp:reg.elsalvador ** NEWS SERVICE ON EL SALVADOR for TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1991 A Special Service of SALPRESS FEED EL SALVADOR'S HUNGRY, NOT U.S. TROOPS: UNTS About 500 peasants marched to the U.S. embassy in San Salvador yesterday to protest president Alfredo Cristiani's offer to feed American troops in the Persian Gulf. The farmworkers, members of the National Unity of Salvadoran Workers (UNTS), said the Salvadoran president's proposal is "senseless" because many Salvadorans die every day from hunger and malnutrition. UNTS leader Marco Tulio Lima said aiding the United States in any way is a "a crime against humanity." Recently, President Cristiani indicated that while circumstances prevent El Salvador from sending troops to the Persian Gulf, his administration has decided to assist American forces with "food or something like that." Teachers' union leader Jorge Villegas today marvelled, "How is it possible for the government to take the luxury of giving away food to a power so rich it doesn't need it?" adding that the food should be given to the nation's hungry majority. TEACHER TORTURED, IMPRISONED Leaders of the teachers' union, ANDES, today denounced the capture and torture of one of its members by National Police. ANDES leader, Jorge Villegas, said that although they had no warrant, police arrested Jesus Molina Gomez on January 15 as the man was on his way to work. Villegas said Molina was tortured and then remanded to the men's prison at Mariona on charges of "subversive association." Molina Gomez also worked with the Communities Coordinating Committee (CCC), a slum dwellers self- help group. PARTIES CHARGE ARMY INTERFERENCE The three political parties joined in the Democratic Convergence (CD) yesterday denounced military interference in the current elections campaign. Despite the military's January 18 promise to refrain from discriminating against any political party's members or material, opposition politician Ruben Zamora said the army blocked his January 20 visit to Chalatenango province. According to the leader of the Popular Social Christian Movement (MPSC), he and two Americans were detained at the Colima bridge and prevented from continuing their trip to Nueva Concepcion, where he was to hold a campaign rally. A leader of the National Revolutionary Movement party (MNR), Walter Duenas, complained that the parties are not competing under equal conditions, since the CD is "surrounded and pressured by constant intimidation" from the ruling ARENA party and the army. He charged that, over the weekend, ARENA had 1st Infantry Brigade troops ride shotgun on commandeered garbage trucks painted with the governing party's insignia. NEWS SYNTHESIS ON EL SALVADOR is a special service of SALPRESS, ******************************************************************