Peasants ‘massacred’

Press, 28 April 1981, Page 8

Peasants ‘massacred’

NZPA London A "mass, extermination" of thousands of peasants is being deliberately carried out by the Salvadorean Army in the mountain region along the frontier with Honduras, the London “Sunday Times" has reported. The peasants are. in an area where guerrillas of the Popular Revolutionary Bloc and other anti-Governmcnt elements are locked in combat with the forces of El Salvador's ruling junta, the newspaper said. In a despatch from its special correspondent in the area, David Blundy, the

"Sunday Times” gave circumstantial eye-witness accounts of "atrocities of increasing brutality and repression” by Government forces and also the Honduran Army. It was clear, the correspondent wrote, "that these were not the exceses of a few brutal and disobedient troops but a co-ordinated military campaign by the Salvadorean military, assisted by the Honduran Army with, according to some Honduran sources, the support of the United States.” Describing an incident that took place on March 16, the report said: “Eight thousand

Salvadorean refugees attempted for two days to cross the River Lempa, near the Honduran border town of Virtud, while the 'Salvadorean Air Force dropped bombs and strafed .them, while the Army fired mortar shells and machine-guns. The Honduran Army blocked the refugees’ escape route by! forming a cordon.” -j Three Roman Catholic; priests told the “SundayTimes" correspondent that atleast 10 were drowned trying: to swim the river and others' were hit by bullets. At least 20 men were killed by Honduran troops as they reached the other side.