When they reached agreement on ending El Salvador’s 12-year civil war last year, the government in San Salvador and the guerrillas of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) had the good sense and courage to want to fix responsibility for the violence that killed, injured and terrorized tens of thousands of people.
Accordingly, a United Nations-appointed Commission on Truth was set up to look into cases like the murders of innocent Salvadoran villagers, mayors and church leaders, as well as the deaths of foreign journalists, church women and military members.
On Monday the Truth Commission reported its findings, fulfilling a mandate to explicate heinous events since 1980 “whose impact on society urgently demands that the public should know the truth.”
Now the key parties in El Salvador face the formidable challenge of coping with the overwhelmingly ugly truth of which they have been given custody.
Former rebels new to suit-and-tie politics; government and business powerholders unaccustomed to being challenged; military officers whose clout has diminished-all must summon up good sense and courage again, this time to wring benefits from the enhanced historical record rather than more rancor.
The task will be particularly difficult because the commission confirmed there was fire behind all the smoke of atrocity charges against both sides. The panel backed longstanding suspicions that it was government forces that perpetrated outrages like the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, the slaying of a half-dozen Jesuit priests and the massacre of several hundred townspeople at El Mozote.
FMLN rebels were called to account for political killings, too, including those of several mayors and of four off-duty U.S. Marines who were embassy guards.
By contributing to a salutary sense of closure, the UN panel’s report could help El Salvador make its transition from bloody past to peaceful future. But this would seem to require, besides knowing the truth, satisfying a basic need to see justice done. As the UN panel said, “Justice demands punishment.”
The trick will be to strike the right balance between full-blown prosecution of reputed war criminals and blanket amnesty. President Alfredo Cristiani, focused on national reconciliation, favors the latter while FMLN leaders lean to the former.
The Truth Commission findings also contain a lesson for future U.S. government policymakers. The U.S. supported the Salvadoran government to the tune of $6 billion during the war. Given the available choices, it was a defensible policy.
But such involvement carries an obligation to at least attempt to ameliorate the client’s conduct. Next time, Washington, instead of trying to minimize the smoke, should act to check the fire sooner.
