PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Eleven: The Independent Human Rights Commission

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

5 October 1990, 10:15 AM - The Independent Human Rights Commission

We are introduced to Jorge, who will tell us about the history and work of the Commission.

"I am pleased that you are here, because your visit demonstrates the authority that our group has internationally.

"We began on 1 April 1978 at the initiative of professors and students at the National University who raised concerns about the rise in human rights violations at that time. In twelve years we have suffered two disappearances, three assassinations, and three captures. But we still continue despite the oppression of the armed forces.

"We are members of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIHD) and of the Coordination of Human Rights in Central America (CODEHUCA). Our organization has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize, and this year received a prize from the non-governmental organization 2001 in Sweden. Also the Lutheran Church has extended to us the symbol of human rights.

"We carry out denunciations of abuses on an international level, using videos and actual eyewitness testimony. We maintain a legal office where people can register denunciations. And we have a commission of investigation which goes out to investigate denunciations.

"Our main problem is that we only have one vehicle, and we are always being detained. Our committees work in the area of statistics, keeping track of assassinations, captures, and disappearances, and also in the areas of the press, of international relations, and of administration."

Question: What is your relationship to the United Nations?

"We were allowed a space of ten minutes at the U.N. to give testimony about human rights violations in El Salvador.

"We see human rights violations span over three levels - 1. respect for human life, for one's morals, and one's ideas; 2. economic level, affecting health, education, culture; and 3. self-determination of the people. Even though we are not specialists in the second area, we stand by our testimony that the current government of El Salvador violates in this area."

Question: Do you have lobbyists in the U.S.?

"Not directly, but we send information to several congress people who use it. Here in El Salvador the government and the army always accuse us of being a front for the FMLN. We feel that this is an escape (excuse?) for them. We are constantly watched. U.S. embassy cars watch and sometimes follow us when we leave the offices."

Question: Why?

"To give justification to their charge that we are a front for the FMLN. One reason that the embassy has a particular interest in us is because we recognize the third level of violations. Recently U.S. embassy personnel were involved in the capture of four students."

Question: What is your relationship with Amnesty International and Americas Watch?

"What we do is to present to them documentation that we have developed. If there is a special case, representatives from both of those organizations will go out with us to investigate."

Question: Do AI and AW do a good job of disseminating information?

"Yes, but there are very real problems in the overall work of investigating human rights violations. We just can't get to everywhere that there are reports to be investigated.

"In terms of the work that the international organizations do, one problem is that they spend only two or three days collecting information. They don't often go out into the field to do hands-on investigation. A UN regulator was here for eight days, but he just sat at a desk and received materials. The second day that he was here, two reporters were assassinated. You would think that he would want to go out and see the car, ask questions, but he didn't."

Question: Do you coordinate your work with Tutela Legal or with the other human rights organizations in El Salvador?

"We have relations with all of these organizations. Tutela Legal is problematic; they don't want to collaborate. They are very close to the bishops. For instance, Rosa Chavez (the auxiliary bishop of San Salvador) said in his homily one week that there had been no human rights violations the previous week, but we knew of two women who had been raped and tortured two days earlier."

Question: Where do you get your information?

"We get it from the people themselves. Usually people don't have fear (to report it) when a family member has already been captured or disappeared. If we hear about something that has not been reported, we will go out and talk with the family. [The photo above shows a portion of the "wall of martyrs" at the commission quarters.]

"Sometimes statistics don't reflect the real situation. For instance, if a violation occurs in an outlying area in July, it might take until September for a family member to get to San Salvador to make the denunciation. Tutela Legal is much more efficient in this respect, because it has a large, far-flung structure."

Question: Do you know of violations by the FMLN?

"We compile information from newspapers. One time the Armed Forces reported three assassinated and one raped by the FMLN. We went to the area and found only one assassination and one rape. We talked with the father of the rape victim, who said that his son witnessed the attack and saw the attackers putting on wigs and costumes. The next day he saw some of the same men in armed forces uniforms."

Question: We have seen references to an incident in 1981 when the FMLN is reported to have opened fire on a bus. Can you speak to that incident?

"Lots of times the propaganda in the papers reports FMLN violations, but when the incidents are investigated, it virtually always turns out to have been the armed forces who have planted the mines, made the attacks, etc. There was a case just a little while ago, soon after the accords had been drawn up. On 12 September there was a bombardment in Chalatenango; a mother was injured and two children killed in a helicopter attack. COPREFA (the armed forces news service) reported that the FMLN were responsible, but the FMLN doesn't have the equipment to launch such an attack. I have pictures showing the damage, and it was clearly an air attack.

"The offensive in November showed in a crude way the reality. We then could see what helicopters were doing to the civilians. I was caught for eight days in Mexicana. We tried to leave after the second day, but the armed forces wouldn't let us. The armed forces were looking for FMLN, but they couldn't find any, so they fired indiscriminately on the civilians."

Question: What percentage of the violations are by the army and what percentage by the FMLN?

"There is a chart available." [A copy of materials was given to one of the delegates.]

Question: Has there been a change in the nature of the violations since ARENA took power?

"Since the offensive violations have become more sophisticated. The press reports a reduction in the number of violations, but the press is in the hands of ARENA. For instance, on the economic level, the basic food basket is becoming ever more expensive, out of the reach of poor people. There are more deaths from malnutrition, fewer medicines available, fewer educational opportunities.

"In 1987 a person was able to buy two 5-pound sacks of powdered milk for 50 colones. Now one sack is 55 colones. Statistics show that basic survival requires 1500 colones per person per month. The minimum salary is 630 colones per month. There is a saying in the population that to get sick is a luxury. Medicines are out of reach of the poor.

"The cost of everything is going up. The government is blaming it on the Persian Gulf situation, but Venezuela offered to give us oil. The price increases are not because of market forces but because of the policies of ARENA and the armed forces. Economic policy is arranged to benefit the rich. Banks have been privatized, and the government wants to privatize education. They are reversing the agrarian reform, dividing cooperatives into small private parcels which can be lost."

Question: We saw a poster plastered all over the airport, blaming the FMLN for injuries to a child who had lost her leg.

"This is propaganda. If you ask the people who did it, they will always say that the armed forces are the ones who plant the mines. For example, we have documentation of a woman who was washing clothes and was driven out by the army planting mines along the river.

"I began work here in June 1990. Before that I worked in the ministry of justice in the government. When I became aware of what was going on, I denounced it and was fired. I was unemployed for six months. Then a friend suggested that I apply here. I have a love of God and want to denounce injustices. I am aware that I could be captured and/or assassinated, but the voices denouncing the injustices will never be silenced.

"Here we get aid, perhaps $100.00 per month, but not a real salary. Professionals come in and want 3500 colones per month (about $435.00); we just laugh. Some who work here have studied law, but for security reasons have had to leave the university. There are some professional lawyers in the legal department. We want to start a psychological clinic for torture victims. At the government, I was making 1000 colones ($125.00) per month. I had been there fifteen years, but I refused to play politics to get the good jobs. I have studied psychology, and in Ecuador I studied communications."

Question: Was the FMLN really using the population as shields in the November 1989 offensive?

"In my opinion, no. The FMLN told the people to hide, or to evacuate."

Copyright © 2022 Marian L. Shatto