Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Death site forces El Salvador to face horror of its civil Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 17:03:26 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Death site forces El Salvador to face horror of its civil war \BY Kieran Murray \CR REUTERS NEWS AGENCY \DT EL MOZOTE, El Salvador EL MOZOTE, El Salvador - The exhumation of 102 skeletons in this isolated hamlet has forced El Salvador to come to grips with the brutality of its civil war. The grisly evidence of the worst massacre of the 12-year conflict has touched off a kind of national catharsis as hundreds of once-reticent Salvadorans have come forward to tell how they were raped or beaten or how friends and relatives were murdered or "disappeared." Many here hope their tragic stories will help the healing process that began last January with the signing of U.N.-brokered peace accords. As more broken skeletons and skulls are unearthed here, the horror of what happened at El Mozote and in the war becomes apparent - and unavoidable. Nearly all the remains lifted from the rubble of the hamlet's church office are of young children thought to have been murdered by elite U.S.-trained Salvadoran army troops. The Roman Catholic Church says at least 800 civilians were killed over three days of a counterinsurgency sweep here and in five nearby hamlets in December 1981. Argentine forensic experts sifting slowly through the macabre heap of bones say evidence suggests that soldiers stood at the door of the office and sprayed the victims with bullets before burning their bodies and smashing down the walls. Hundreds more are believed to be lying under the ruins of other houses around the abandoned hamlet. Rufina Amaya, the sole survivor of the massacre, has returned to El Mozote to watch over the experts as they delicately clean off skulls and bones for forensic analysis. "I lost my husband and four children here," says Mrs. Amaya, crying as she talks of how she slipped away from the troops and hid, then escaped when the massacre was over. The exhumations appear to have touched a chord in this beleaguered country. Since the first skeletons were uncovered, Salvadorans have been arriving by the truckload to testify before the U.N.-appointed Truth Commission, set up to investigate and set the record straight on the worst wartime human rights atrocities. Those include the massacre at El Mozote, the murder of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero in 1980 and the killing of six Jesuit priests in 1989. About 75,000 people died in the war. "I don't think you can have national reconciliation if you try to cover these things up," said Thomas Berguenthal, a leading U.S. human rights expert and a member of the Truth Commission. "The question is how deep do we have to cut the wound to heal it," he added. "But I do know that if you let it fester, there is too much unhappiness and hatred passed over from generation to generation." With the peace process now focused on purging human rights abusers from the armed forces, the El Mozote investigation has met a series of barriers put up by government officials, ranging from President Alfredo Cristiani down to forensic authorities who appear intent on minimizing the military's role. Mr. Cristiani has failed to provide the list of officers who were in charge of the army operation, while lower-level officials insist the victims died in the cross fire of combat with rebels of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. But the investigation is going ahead anyway, and forensic experts plan to present the Truth Commission with a report on the massacre early in December. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM