‘Tonnes of arms sent to Salvador’

Press, 25 February 1981, Page 8

‘Tonnes of arms sent to Salvador’

' NZPA . Washington ( I " I The Soviet Union, Cuba,! land other Communist-; nations decided last year toi (send 800 tonnes of arms and; other equipment to El Salva-] I dor in a blatant attempt to I impose a Communist regime! there, President Ronald Rea-! gan s Administration charged; yesterday. ■ While the flow of arms’: might have slowed in the! last two weeks, at least 200jtonnes of those arms .were i funnelled through Cuba and' Nicaragua t o the guerrillas for their “failed general offensive” against the United Siates-backed Government last month, the Administration said. The charges were contain;] ed -in a document entitled; “Communist interference in! >EI Salvador,” which was re-; leased by the State Depart-! ment along with another.] 2.5 cm-thick document with supporting evidence.for the] charges. The State Department said the evidence demonstrated that Cuba and the Soviet Union were engaged in “a well-co-ordinated covert, effort to’bring about the over-

(throw . of EL Salvador’s (established Government and |to impose in its place a ('Communist' regime with no ,popular support.” i It was’not-clear -what the IR e a gan Administration' I planned to do about it, hpw- : ever, except to suggest'" (hat 1 the United States would take 'action if the arms flows; did not-stop. Officials would not say what they had in mind. The Secretary ,-of State (Mr Alexander Haig) ’ said the Administration made the captured documents and other information on Communist involvement in - ..El Salvador public because it wanted the American people to know what is going on. “We hope the knowledge jof it will contribute td'/the ’cessation of it,”-he said. ! The French Foreign Minisjter (Mr Jean Francois-Ppn-;cet), who said he and Mr iHaig discussed the”El/Salvador situation during a [lengthy meeting, .added -‘that the infiltration of arms into that country was “equivalent to an external interference” in El Salvador’s affairs. “We always condemn external interference in third countries,” he said. . He said

I he favoured a political solu-; ! tion to El Salvador’s prob-i (lerns, but .such . a solution! iwas not possible, as long asI arms were being smuggled; I into the country. i Mr Reagan’s press secre-i tary, James Brady, said:! “We have clear evidence ofi catching the Communists’ ; hands in. the cookie jar.” . I Blit asked whether the sit- - uatioji/in' El Salvador- was] similar to that at the start of. the Vietnam War, he. jsai.d:. “I wouldn’t be pre-! (pared to draw a parallel be-! | tween El Salvador and Viet-J (naiii.” '. ... ; 5 John Bushnell. actingAssistant Secretary of State; for inter-American affairs,! said there was “some evi-l dence” that the flow of] weapons into El Salvador: had stopped in recent weeks,; including weapons entering: the country fromANicaragua. The documents contain (information gathered from! j intelligence ; sources, in-, eluding a, letter from a Sal.-! vadprean identified only as' ‘.‘Vladimir” who said warehouses' in Cuba were over-; flowing with arms for the! guerrillas. .. ' ■ “It is impressive how’ all countries in the socialist •

bloc fully committed themselves to meet our. every request and some have even doubled their promised aid,” he wrote in a letter dated November 1 of last year.' The State Department placed great emphasis op the . amount of arms that Communist nations had committed to the guerrilla movement,, evidently to emphasise the magnitude, of the Communist involveihent. It said most,of the arms were of Western manufacture, which it dismissed as an attempt by the Communists to “cover their involvement.” < . For example, among weapons it said were promised by Vietnam, were: 1620 United States Ml 6 automatic rifles and 1.5 million rounds of ammunition,- presumably captured during the Vietnam War, 198 machine-guns, 12 M5O anti-aircraft machineguns, 48 mortars, and 12 anti-tank rocket launchers. One official said that,’the Government was confident that the documents were authentic. and added they - were only part of ,Bkg of.-such documentary evidence ' captured from guerrillas or otherwise obtained by intelligence sources.

I The guerrillas, described las “Marxist-Leninist,” were j estimated by a United States i official to number about “4000 cadres with another several thousand support ters’L ■ - If all 800 tonnes .of weapons reached the 4000 guerrillas, it would amount to 180 kg for each guerrilla j A significant quantity of the I weapons were captured, however. ......... . . The documents were re-* leased to lay the groundwork for United States ef- 1 forts to .assist the-Govern-ment of El White United States officials ; would not say what other action they contemplated? ; White House adviser Edwin Meese suggested it. would include action against Cuba. Much of the information I had been disclosed previously. but the amount fof arms said to be committed by the Communist nations was new, as was the extent of 'the involvement of the Cuban President (Dr Fidel. 'Castro), who the State Department said played “aI direct tutelary role ... in 'bringing the diverse Salvadorean guerrilla factions into a united front.”