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Subject: Salvadoran Accord Seen On Purge; Response of Army To Cutback Awaited<By
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 92 05:41:19 EST
Message-ID: <43.1992Nov9.054120@AmeriCast.com>

Salvadoran Accord Seen On Purge; Response of Army To Cutback
Awaited<By Douglas Farah<Washington Post Foreign Service=

SAN SALVADOR, Nov. 8 - President Alfredo Cristiani, bowing to
international pressure, has agreed to a plan to purge or transfer
more than 100 abusive, corrupt or incompetent military officers
by early next year, clearing the way for the country's United
Nations-backed peace agreement to move forward, according to
knowledgeable sources.

The purging of the army is the most delicate part of a 10-month-
old peace plan that has ended the nation's 12-year-old civil war.
United Nations Assistant Secretary General Alvaro de Soto spent
nine days in intense meetings with Cristiani and guerrilla
leaders trying to hammer out details of the purge.

It is not yet clear how the army, which has been pressing Cris-
tiani to draw out the dismissals until late next year, will
react. Last week, senior military officials said the plan to re-
move the officers under the peace accord was part of a leftist
conspiracy to destroy the armed forces, and hinted they would
resist moves to force them out.

The list of officers to be removed was drawn up under the peace
plan by a three-man Ad Hoc Commission, approved by both sides,
which had to give no reason for asking for an officer's dismis-
sal. But the military was apparently stunned by the scope of the
purge, and many officers feel they are being stigmatized by accu-
sations of human rights abuses that were never proven.  According
to the sources, most of the 80 officers to be removed will be or-
dered out on Nov. 30. The more senior officials on the list -
which reportedly includes Gen. Rene Emilio Ponce, the defense
minister, and his deputy, Gen. Juan Orlando Zepeda - will be re-
tired in the traditional armed forces general order that is given
Dec. 31, and which goes into effect Jan. 6.  Another estimated 40
officers are scheduled to be moved to other assignments.  Those
marked by the commission are not to be identified as such, but
are to be let go along with other retiring or rotating officers -
so there will be no public certainty of who retired voluntarily
and who was forced out.

The sources said the negotiations with de Soto took so long be-
cause Cristiani had asked to allow 14 marked officers to stay on
after the others on the list were forced out. He argued that some
senior officers, such as Ponce, were instrumental in pushing the
peace process forward and would be needed to see the purge went
ahead without a military revolt, the sources reported.

But both the United Nations and the guerrilla Farabundo Marti Na-
tional Liberation Front (FMLN) refused to go along with the re-
quest, in essence forcing the government to comply with the
U.N.-mandated timetable.

The FMLN has said repeatedly that the purge is one of the essen-
tial elements of the agreement, and until officers thought to be
responsible for widespread human rights abuses were removed, the
guerrillas could not be expected to lay down their guns.

The FMLN must complete the surrender of weapons and demobiliza-
tion of its forces in two stages, the first deadline being Nov.
30 and the second Dec.  15.

Just before returning to New York on Saturday to brief the secre-
tary general, de Soto said it looked as if both sides had "total
agreement" on the timetable, but a few details remained to be
worked out.

"Both sides have been extremely cooperative. It looks good for a
total end to the war on Dec.  15," de Soto told Reuter.< 05:03
11-09C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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