EL SALVADOR Heading Home
Norton, Chris
On October 10, buses filled with the first of over 4,500 refugees from the Mesa Grande camp in Honduras started rolling over the Salvadorean border. Mostly peasants who had fled Army operations...
...But gradually the refugees were transferred to the site...
...If the people won't come to us, we will have to go to the people...
...HavingMesa Grande: Packing for the Trip Home failed to stop the return, the Army's strategy seems to be to contain the refugees and try to win some of them over with civic action while identifying the leaders and putting informers in place...
...They even brought Army clowns to build trust in children, an enthusiastic U.S...
...Honduras, however, was happy to be rid of the refugees, and the UNHCR reminded the government of President Jos6 Napole6n Duarte that its mandate was to help, not impede, the refugees' return...
...And at Guarjila, the mayor of San Antonio Los Ranchos showed up and tried to entice his former neighbors back, promising to arrange for supplies and government materials...
...Not until the night of October 9 did the refugeesalready packing the buses-receive word that they would be allowed to proceed...
...With increasing frustration in the armed forces over human rights restrictions on their efforts to win the war, many expect the trend of increasing human rights violations to continue...
...Yet few lined up for the giveaways...
...Instead, they requested pipes to build a water system, but were turned down...
...The refugees, however, insisted on staying in Guarjila with the Arcatao group...
...Canjura heads the First Detachment, responsible for the three repatriation sites in rebeldominated eastern Chalatenango...
...But the refugees refused to submit to government control...
...Mostly peasants who had fled Army operations in rebel-dominated areas, the refugees were going home for the first time after up to seven years in the camp...
...Although the Army had given formal permission, the convoys were stopped at military checkpoints...
...It is this communal spirit that the government may try to break...
...They planned to go to the capital to celebrate mass at the National Cathedral before going to their home sites...
...Doctors provided checkups and pills...
...We want our children to have shoes, clothes, food and a house...
...adviser explained...
...Indeed, all the refugees are particularly vulnerable to Army pressure on Church food shipments...
...He noted the lack of young men among the refugees...
...One week before the move, it fired off desperate telegrams to the Honduran government and the UNHCR asking them to block the effort...
...If they come to work and don't get involved in problems, they won't have any problems with us...
...After ignoring the refugees' requests for months, the government panicked when it realized the return was imminent...
...One woman started counting off steps from one house and then began digging...
...The 24-kilometer road from Suchitoto is overgrown and mined...
...It was the first step of what proved a major organizing effort throughout 1987...
...These people are coming back to help the guerrillas...
...The military is worried that the repatriation to Copapayo could strengthen the FMLN in the area and serve as a logistical bridge between the rebel zone in Chalatenango and Guazapa...
...Again, the refugees declined the offer as they brought teachers with them from the camps...
...Suspicious that the government might try 6~5F.rl lilZ: - - r~~~~_ ___iV-_- - - Arriving at Guarjila, Chalatenango to stop the repatriation at the last moment, the refugees wanted to wait at the border until all had crossed...
...A growth of water lilies fouled the propellers of the boats, further slowing the process...
...But the UNHCR was worried that the mass would turn into a political rally and pushed for the refugees to go directly to their homes as each group crossed...
...Canjura and over a hundred soldiers showed up in Guarjila one day to hand out food and clothing and offer haircuts...
...One convoy had to stop until smaller vehicles were obtained...
...They are masas, he said, using the term for the guerrillas' civilian supporters...
...In July, another group returned to Hacienda El Barillo, north of the Guazapa Volcano...
...Still, all was far from smooth...
...As 4,500 of Salvador's poorest and most politically conscious peasants filed by, the two military commanders of Chalatenango province, Col...
...One of the reasons this group has had such a stormy history with the UNHCR at the camps is that they have refused to be passive players and have insisted on their right to have a say about things that affect them...
...Salvadorean refugees have been unwelcome guests in Honduras, which charges the camps are used logistically by FMLN guerrillas...
...Benjamin Canjura stood by...
...Soon she had found the metate, or grinding stone, she had buried before fleeing...
...Work teams were quickly organized to accomplish different tasks...
...Duarte reluctantly complied...
...The Geneva headquarters of the UNHCR had sent a cable threatening to pull out of the project if the refugees weren't allowed to go back to their place of origin...
...Some have already said they, too, want to return...
...They aren't the stereotype of pas- sive, powerless refugees," commented one international development worker...
...The stocky, mustached Canjura didn't look pleased by the return...
...Reluctant Compliance Back in the capital, Salvadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Acevedo Peralta lashed out at the UNHCR, charging it had lost control of the repatriation...
...The military, worried about the return of peasants sympathetic to the guerrillas, has developed its own resettlement efforts which aim to pacify the country...
...Safety in Numbers But most striking was the refugees' collective form of organization, which they had developed in the camps and are determined to maintain...
...They would be dependent on trucked-in supplies until they could plant in May, and the road was impassable east of Guarjila...
...In Santa Marta, men began clearing land to build a cluster of houses...
...Army Clothes and Clowns Meanwhile, Col...
...Faced with the return of a large group of highly politicized refugees from precisely the areas of Chalatenango, Cabafias and Cuscatldn departments it had tried to clear, the Salvadorean government did everything possible to stop it from happening...
...The crossing itself was tense...
...Nevertheless, on September 1, five Army bombers attacked the houses of recent resettlers, killing one and wounding others...
...Even though we are campesinos who don't know how to read or write we have seen that we can develop ourselves if given the opportunity," said one refugee...
...Even the lake seemed to conspire to impede the return...
...Already designated a site for a pilot project under the Army's "United To Reconstruct" counterinsurgency plan, Santa Marta was soon visited by Interior Ministry representatives offering U.S...
...We have learned how to think for ourselves and to defend our interests...
...And, in a country where the war has displaced close to 500,000 people-almost one in every ten Salvadoreans-many displaced are gradually, spontaneously returning to their homes, unable to survive under worsening economic conditions...
...And the terrain imposed its own limitations: the large city buses hired by the UNHCR could not navigate the narrow dirt roads...
...Indeed, they had forced civilians out of rebelcontrolled zones in the first place, using a variety of tactics: major Army sweeps, massacres, aerial bombardment and finally, the more subtle tool of cutting off food and medical supplies...
...Santa Marta was the site the Army was least worried about...
...We want them to go to school and have all that we haven't had," said one refugee...
...A spit of no-man's land northeast of Suchitoto, Copapayo is the site of frequent fighting between the guerrillas I 7 SEPTEMBER/DECEMBER and the Army...
...But if they get involved with the guerrillas, then we'll give them problems...
...The refugees remember all too well the ease with which death squads made their nighttime visits to isolated homes...
...The group returning to Copapayo encountered the most difficulties...
...Jos6 Humberto G6mez, of the Fourth Brigade at El Paraiso, and Col...
...Despite the uncertainties implicit in reChris Norton is a freelance journalist who has been based in San Salvador for four years...
...Canjura already holding up the trucks bringing food The Border: Registering Salvador's and medicine, the refugees clearly felt that sticking together might make them less vulnerable...
...Each of the groups was stopped by local Army troops and warned not to get involved with the guerrillas...
...And despite claims of having promoted the return, neither the Salvadorean government nor the powerful military wanted the refugees back...
...But refugees distrust government offers, which, they say, ignore their priorities and aim at dividing the community...
...But they requested building materials to repair the school...
...Although the Army would like civilians to join civil defense units, few want to enter the firing line between the Army and the guerrillas...
...And there have been organized returns of civilians forced out of rebel zones coordinated by the National Commission for Repopulation (CNR), which also helped organize the Mesa Grande repatriation...
...The homecoming prompted tearful reunions with family and neighbors they had not seen in seven years...
...We know that the return is part of the guerrillas' plan...
...When the refugees balked, the UNHCR refused to allow the next group to cross unless the first moved...
...In June 1986, 100 families resettled San Jos6 Las Flores, an abandoned town in Chalatenango...
...Those from Arcatao and San Antonio Los Ranchos decided to settle in Guarjila rather than return to their places of origin...
...While the refugees were waiting for the boats, the military sealed them off in a church, not allowing family or friends to visit them...
...Their future is filled with great hope and great uncertainty...
...A Model for Resettlement The October 10 repatriation will be a model for those who remain in the Honduran camps...
...They had been forcibly removed by the Army's Phoenix Operation in early 1986...
...But the main project, in the Suchitoto area of Cuscatlin province, is proceeding slowly...
...Indeed, the Army murder of a young school teacher in Arcatao on October 24 is a grim reMost Politically Conscious F - IL REPORT ON THE AMERICAS a E m D 2 I 8minder of the risks all the refugees, especially the leaders, will run...
...turning to the conflictive zones, over 4,000 of the 11,000 refugees in Mesa Grande signed forms stating their intent to go home...
...In Copapayo, the refugees were also offered an AID road building project...
...Agency for International Development (AID)-funded roadbuilding projects...
...At Guarjila, the refugees were met by hundreds of campesinos who had walked from further inside the rebel zone, from the towns of San Jos6 Las Flores and Arcatao, to greet them with music and fireworks...
...In the end, the UNHCR prevailed...
...In a last ditch effort to stop the process, a delegation from the Interior Ministry visited Mesa Grande on October 9, threatening that unless the refugees postponed the return, they would have to go to two abandoned haciendas, Valle Verde and Popayin, on the north side of the Guazapa Volcano, an area designated for resettlement under the Army's "United to Reconstruct" counterinsurgency plan...
...When you forced us out with bombs and the military we weren't forced out in an orderly fashion," said one...
...Few refugees had identification papers since most had fled their homes under attack...
...As a settlement, we want to live in peace, work in peace and not be persecuted...
...Copapayo is only accessible by water, in small launches holding 20 at a time...
...The people are a little timid," stated Canjura...
...Observers fear that the military may increase harassment if it finds that its soft approach fails...
...With Col...
...They also live on the edge of some of the most conflictive zones in the country, with a war that promises only to get tougher and dirtier...
...The local representative of the Education Ministry also visited Santa Marta, offering to help repair the school and send two teachers...
...Unwelcome Guests When the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told the refugees in late 1986 that they had to either repatriate to El Salvador, settle permanently in Honduras or go to a third country, the refugees pressed for repatriation...
...The recent returnees from Mesa Grande have many hopes and plans...
...The Army drew up an abbreviated form which 50 special immigration officers used to register those crossing...
...Finally, they were transferred to an abandoned school under Army surveillance...
...Because there has been little guerrilla activity in the area, many believe the bombing was aimed at dissuading the refugees in Mesa Grande from returning...
...A major victory for the refugees, the return to El Salvador was a result of their own organizing and determination...
Vol. 21 • September 1987 • No. 5
