El Salvador appeal raises $30,000

Press, 28 October 1981, Page 12

El Salvador appeal raises $30,000

About $30,000 has been received so far for the United Appeal for El Salvador, says Mr Glen McLennan, speaking on behalf of the appeal organisers. The appeal, to assist victims of the present conflict in El Salvador, is being held jointly by Corso, Christian, World Service, and the Catholic Commission for Evangelisation, Justice and Development. The situation in El Salvador is said to be deteriorating, with increasing numbers of political arrests and assassinations. More than 9000 people were murdered in the first six months of this year, according to the El Salvadorean Human Rights Commission, most by the military and Right-wing death squads which roam, the; streets during the- curfew hours. The churches theniselves are reported to be coming under increasing pressure from the military and from the death squads. "This was brought home to me recently when I heard of the death of the director of the Legal Aid Programme of one of the churches I visited,” says Mrs Lyn Jackson, Christchurch regional organiser of Corso, who recently returned from a visit to El Salvador on behalf of the three agencies. “The director had been ‘threatened’ the day I was

there and so was shifting house, but we have since heard that she was murdered the next day,” Mrs Jackson said. “It was a political assassination. She was very well respected in her parish for the work she was doing in trying to get legal rights for prisoners." Only 5 per cent of prisoners were brought before tribunals, she said. The rest remained in prison, were murdered, or just disappeared.