A war of terror

Press, 27 March 1980, Page 8

A war of terror

NZPA-Reuter jZSan Salvador The assassination of Archbishop Oscar. Arnulfo Romero, an outspoken advocate of; social reform, is the latest act in a Leftist-Rightist terror war that has claimed mdre than 700 lives this year in El Salvador. Just recently the Archbishop himself ;had. said that most of the victims' were innocent farmworkers killed by the military and Rightist forces.

' Right-wing terrorists were suspected of shooting the Archbishop on Monday night as he celebrated Mass, although no group claimed responsibility. Both Rightist and Leftist groups have conducted their own bands of terrorism in the political strife that has dominated Salvadoran life in recent years. Leftist groups resort to guer r i 11 a-style attacks, strikes, occupation of public buildings, and kidnappings. They, have raised more than $B5 mililon for their war chests by kidnapping dozens of wealthy businessmen, diplomats, and Government officials in the last four years. Sometimes the kidnap victims are killed. :■ The South African Ambassador (Mr Richard Gardner Dunn) has been held by a Lefist guerrilla group since November 14. ■ On the other side are secret Right-wing killer squads who torture, bludgeon, strangle, and shoot scores of Leftists each month, accord-

ing to the police, diplomats, and human-rights officials. These authorities claim that Rightist elements are also responsible- for blowing up Government offices in an apparent effort to delay agrarian reforms. The Right seldom, if ever, acknowledges its acts.. But sources say the Rightists are fighting a terrorist war in the belief they are stopping a Leftist drive for a Marxist government. Three known Rightist groups are the White Warriors Union, Orden (the Spanish wordfor order)', and the Anti-Communist Front for the Liberation of Central America. Diplomats say the groups are made up of off-duty or retired military men and seem to be allied with each other. This month, there have been numerous shoot-outs in the capital between the military and Leftist guerrillas, and a number of Leftist leaders have been quietly murdered. . ’“lt looks like an extermination campaign to get us all,” said Mr Hector Bernabe Recinos an organiser of the Leftist Popular Unified Action Front. “This murder campaign Is forcing us (Leftist leaders) to go underground. We are all scared, but it won’t stop us.” When a few moderate colonels led the October 15, 1979, coup to dust the Rightist President Carlos Humberto Romero (no relation to the slain Arch-

bishop), 'they said they had acted to end Rightist repression, bring the Left and Right into the political process, and end the threat of civil war between the extremes.

Even though the junta established by the. colonels pushed through sweeping land reforms and nationalised banks to make credit easier for all, it has been unable to stop the political violence.

A junta member, Colonel Adolfo Majano said last month that violence would no longer be tolerated from either political extreme, The Government imposed a state of siege, forbidding political gatherings and banning unauthorised public gatherings, all in an effort to prevent trouble as farms were expropriated and banks were nationalised,

Diplomatic sources said Rightists were responsible for blowing up Agriculture Ministry offices in the last month, and Leftist guerrillas had ambushed several National Guard .convoys. These sources said the Right believed the banking and. land reforms were communistic, while, the Left argued that the changes did not go far (enoughs . Archbishop Romero was a spokesman for the ppor. He had denounced violence from both the Left and the Right. But the Right considered him pro-Left, apparently because, he said the .right has more culpability in the present problems.