################################################################## [Arhived by ACTIV-L; send 1-line message GET FMLN BACKGRND ACTIV-L to LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET] ################################################################## ==================================== About the Salvadoran Revolution and the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) ==================================================== "Fifty years of lies, fifty years of injustice, fifty years of frustration. This is a history of people starving to death, living in misery. For fifty years the same people had all the power, all the money, all the jobs, all the education, all the opportunities. Those who did not have anything tried to take it away from those who had everything. But there were no democratic systems available to them, so they have radicalized themselves, have resorted to violence. And of course this second group, the rich, do not want to give up anything, so they are fighting." --Former president Jose Napoleon Duarte, in a 1980 interview, when asked about the origins of the conflict in El Salvador; Raymond Bonner, the interviewer, was surprised by Duarte's sympathetic explanation for the revolution, and added: "But what struck me more...was what he [Duarte] had not said. He had said nothing about Castro or Cuba. He had not mentioned the Sandinistas or Nicaragua. There was no talk of the cold war and the Soviet Union. (Duarte was to raise those themes later, when they reflected the views of the Reagan administration in Washington) What Duarte was saying was that the revolution had been caused and fueled by the conditions in El Salvador" [see New York Times Magazine, Feb. 22, 1981; see also Bonner's book _Weakness and Deceit:U.S. Policy and El Salvador_ (New York:Times Books, 1984), page 24] [[source and reference from: "What Are We Afraid Of?" by John Lamperti; look up in the file "groups"]] ################################################################## ################################################################## Former U.S. Ambassador Robert White: "The history of El Salvador bears consistent witness to the greed and brutality of men who look on compromise as weakness and who regard torture and murder as routine and acceptable methods of coping with dissent. The failure of US policy makers to press for a negotiated end to the war in El Salvador has placed our country in league with a clique of assassins masquerading as an army... "...to the Salvadoran military, the [rebel offensive, [which followed a wave of government repression, including the bombing of the FENASTRAS union building --HB]] came as a gift, an opportunity to wipe out not only insurgents but also priests, labor union organizers, peasant leaders and thousands of poor citizens who support change. On November 16, armed, uniformed men dragged six Jesuit priests and two servants from their beds. They tortured the priests for close to an hour, then executed all their captives... "Day after day, the world watches with horror as modern engines of war supplied by the U.S. strafe, bomb and burn the shantytowns of San Salvador, maiming and killing thousands of innocent civilians. They do little damage to the pockets of mobile guerrillas armed only with hand-held weapons. The Government has denied Red Cross requests for a cease-fire to evacuate the wounded... "President Bush described the Salvadoran revolutionaries as `terrorists' and the Salvadoran Government as `a democracy'. Wrong on both counts. "The revolutionaries took up arms only after the military and economic elites of El Salvador had rejected all avenues of peaceful change for more than half a century. No competent observer doubts that ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ the Salvadoran revolution is home grown, authentic and enjoys wide popular support... [the revolutionaries'] demand that the military purge itself of its most notorious abusers of human rights was derided as `absurd, ridiculous and impossible' [by the government] "..The outdated security doctrine that guides Bush Administration thinking demands the subordination of El Salvador's need for social and economic justice to our supposed national security requirements. This has meant the establishment of a veneer of democracy in El Salvador, where the armed forces, with U.S. acquiescence, decide with deadly force who can and cannot participate in political life. In El Salvador, the fundamental duty of a democratic government to protect its citizens has been stood on its head. People are tortured, disappear and are killed at the whim of security forces that enjoy absolute immunity from legal action..." --Former U.S. Ambassador Robert White, in the New York Times, Nov. 21, 1989 ################################################################## ################################################################## ** 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. -------------------------------------------- To send email to a PeaceNet account "XYZ" just substitute "XYZ" for "peacenet" in the following: Internet: cdp!peacenet@labrea.stanford.edu Bitnet: cdp!peacenet%labrea@stanford UUCP: uunet!pyramid!cdp!peacenet ("salpress" in this case) -------------------------------------------- ################################################################## ##################################################################