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EL SALVADOR
The IACHR has closely followed developments in El Salvador,
especially since 1978, when, as a result of its on-site visit, it
approved a report on the status of human rights in that country. On the
basis of that report, it has continued to submit year after year
periodic reports to the OAS General Assembly on the most significant
actions affecting the status of human rights in El Salvador.
José Napoleón Duarte, who had previously headed the government
of El Salvador—setting up the Government Junta (Junta de Gobierno) in
1980 and presiding over it until March 1982, when he was
replaced—became President of the Republic on June 1, 1984, and, as was
reported in the last Annual Report, was the first civil candidate
elected democratically in El Salvador in 50 years.
President Duarte’s administration, despite its declared efforts
to promote, protect and defend the full observance of human rights in
the country, give priority to complaints about violation of those rights
and investigate military attacks on civilian populations, guarantee the
impartiality of judicial processes, penalize the perpetrators of all
violations of human rights, and clarify the acts committed by the
“Death Squadrons,” has unfortunately little accomplished in these
areas in its one year and three months of existence.
Although the serious and widespread violations of human rights in
the country in recent years have diminished during the period covered by
this report, they continue to affect seriously the Salvadoran people in
the capital and rural areas. While, according to the complaints
received, the armed forces of El Salvador are responsible for most of
this violence, the guerrillas are not excluded, and they are also
accused of cruel acts of murder, torture and other violations of basic
human rights.
In October 1984, President José Napoleón Duarte began efforts
to restore peace and social harmony in El Salvador by opening up
dialogue with guerrilla leaders whom he invited publicly in his address
to the United Nations General Assembly on October 8, 1984, to
participate in talks to that end.
As a result of this praiseworthy initiative, the principal
guerrilla leaders met for the first time on October 15, 1984, in the
city of La Palma, 80 kilometers north of El Salvador, with President
Duarte. Collaborating in holding the meeting were the Catholic Church,
the International Red Cross and diplomatic representatives of a number
of countries. A second round of talks took place on November 30 that
same year in Ayaguato, 20 kilometers south of El Salvador, but the
setting of a new date to continue the dialogue has been postponed on
numerous occasions.
Although both the guerrilla leaders and President Duarte have
stated that they are quite disappointed with the results of the
negotiations that have been carried out, and both sides have engaged in
recriminations against the other side for the failure to reach an
understanding or achieve results, the IACHR shares the hope voiced by
many actors, including the Catholic Church, that these attempts to
achieve peace and harmony through dialogue will not be discontinued or
fall through for good.
As to political rights, elections were held in El Salvador on
March 31, 1985, ten months after the Government of President Duarte took
office, to select a new 60-member legislative assembly and appoint the
262 mayors and municipal councils in the country. The results of the
election, the fourth held in the last three years, which show the
progress made through the democratic process, resulted in a sweeping
victory for President Duarte’s Christian Democratic Party.
When the results of the election were published, the rightist
coalition demanded that the elections be declared null and void, but the
Central Elections Council unanimously rejected the petition as
inadmissible.
Regarding the right to life, the activities of the “Death
Squads” have continued their toll of kidnappings, disappearances and
murders with less intensity in the urban areas of El Salvador away from
the capital. In rural areas, cases of extralegal executions and abuse of
authority by members of the Army have continued to occur. Although to a
lesser extent, bombings and machine-gunning of civilian populations
attributed to the Salvadoran Air Force, forced removal of populations
resettled as displaced persons in refugee camps, and violations of the
Geneva Convention have continued to be charged.
According to information provided to the Commission by reliable
sources, the proven number of civilian noncombatants killed as a result
of violence by the Salvadoran Army during the period of this report is
as follows:
The
right to liberty and personal security, freedom from arbitrary arrest,
the right to be informed of the reasons for arrest and the charges, and
to be brought without delay before a trial judge have very limited
effectiveness in El Salvador. The maintenance of the state of siege,
which is extended monthly without complying with the mandate in
paragraph 3 of Article 27 of the American Convention, which provides
that the other States’ Parties to the Convention shall be notified of
such suspension of guarantees, has virtually deprived the Salvadoran
people of those rights since March 1980, when the state of siege was
declared. This situation has become worse since the implementation of
Decree 50 of February 1984, which regulate the treatment of political
prisoners.
On this issue, the Commission has information that up to June of
this year over 400 persons have been held without charges and without
having been brought before judicial authorities. Many of these prisoners
have been in custody for four or five years under these conditions,
despite the complaints of their families, and writs of habeas corpus
filed on their behalf.
The Commission has information that many of the prisoners in the
La Esperanza in the Canton of San Luis Mariona of San Salvador who have
been confined for offenses against the public order, before being
transferred to that public prison, have been held for long periods of
time in secret military detention centers, in which they were kept
incommunicado and subjected to mistreatment, torture and other abuse.
Regarding the right to protection of physical, mental and moral
integrity, the IACHR has received and is processing charges of cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment to which almost all persons of both sexes
held by Salvadoran authorities have been subjected. Prisoners also
complain that after they have been held incommunicado and have been
transferred to the La Esperanza prison, forensic doctors they have
requested to examine them for physical and mental injury produced by
torture do not show up. So prisoners are prevented from obtaining
medical-legal proof and certification that would enable them to bring
charges against those responsible and seek damages.
In addition to these and other acts, the Commission has continued
to receive other complaints that Salvadoran Government and military
officials have perpetrated acts that are violations of other rights and
guarantees stipulated in the American Convention. The Commission wishes
to place special emphasis in this report on a fact, that because of its
seriousness must be brought to the attention of the OAS General
Assembly, and that is that the Government of El Salvador has
increasingly been failing to cooperate with the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights without any explanation or justification. It
has first of all refused to answer repeated requests sent to it for
information until a point has been reached that virtually all relations
with the Commission have been suspended, and since January 1985,
communications from the IACHR have not even been acknowledged.
The foregoing leads the Commission to the following conclusions
and recommendations: a.
While the serious and widespread human rights violations
indicated in previous IACHR reports have declined during the period
covered by this report, they still continue to affect the Salvadoran
people in the capital and in the countryside seriously; b.
The Commission has no doubt about President Duarte’s good
intentions to respect human rights. However, despite his declared
efforts to promote, protect and defend their full observance, his
actions have not yet resulted in significant improvement, and
achievements or progress in this area during his one year and three
months of government have been very small. c.
Although the results of the two rounds of talks between
President Duarte and the guerrilla leaders have not attained the
objectives proposed, the IACHR agrees with the hope voiced by many
sectors that talks should be continued and a final collapse of these
efforts should be avoided. d.
It is essential to conduct pending investigations on human
rights violations attributed to the Salvadoran security forces, that
have been reported to the government by the IACHR and punish those
responsible. e.
Despite the violent situation, which is often
uncontrollable, generated by the internal conflict taking place in El
Salvador, the IACHR considers it essential for the government to take
the measures required to exercise greater and more effective control in
order to avoid the excesses and abuses of power that the Salvadoran
armed forces are frequently accused of. f.
So long as the confrontation continues, the government and
the guerrillas should, in order to make the war more humane, respect the
basic principles of humanitarian law and the provisions of the Geneva
Conventions. g.
Abuses, mistreatment and torture charged by prisoners held
in the La Esperanza prison should be investigated, and the perpetrators
of such acts should be punished accordingly. h.
Note that the repeated refusal of the Salvadoran Government
to investigate human rights violations attributed to its security forces
in the complaints reported to the government by the IACHR, and to report
to this Commission on the findings of such investigations constitutes a
violation of the American Convention on Human Rights, and a breach of
the international protection rules that the inter-American system has
established to defend the essential rights of human beings, which El
Salvador has pledged to respect and to have respected.
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