VICTIMS OF 'A WAR IN A CROWD'
Moeller, Susan
Victims of 'a War BY SUSAN MOELLER The Americans who staff the U.S. embassy in San Salvador are shielded by thick concrete walls, a contingent of Marines, and at least 150 Salvadoran troops....
...The certification was renewed in January, and Secretary of State George Shultz said the Salvadoran government exhibited "increased consciousness" of human rights...
...The embassy regularly counts the killings related to the civil war and relays the figures to the State Department in Washington...
...Still, they are not isolated from the political violence that afflicts the country...
...Rarely a night goes by that we don't hear of people being taken," said a parish priest...
...The messages, known as "grim-grams," tell in statistics what most Salvadorans have seen for themselves...
...Generally, the dead bodies show signs of torture...
...in a Crowd' Unfortunately, none has escaped the war entirely...
...embassy's chief military officer, Colonel John Waghelstain, has said, "There are no fronts in this war...
...The guards come with a list...
...Her visit was sponsored by the Commission on U.S.-Central American Relations, a nonpartisan organization that monitors militarism and economic problems in Central America and the Caribbean...
...Some have opted out by choice and some have been forced to flee the battle...
...Faced with such intolerable circumstances, some Salvadorans have declared themselves noncombatants by escaping— some to the United States, others to one of the region's refugee camps...
...In fact, human rights have been of little concern to the so-called Government of National Unity...
...This is a war in a crowd...
...The Catholic Archdiocese of El Salvador estimates that 800,000 people are "displaced persons" or "refugees...
...The statistics are corroborated by the testimony of Salvadorans...
...On July 27, President Reagan certified that El Salvador was making progress protecting human rights...
...The embassy calculated that 103 people lost their lives in political violence during the last two weeks of July 1982...
...M Susan Moeller, a Washington-based freelance photo journalist, recently traveled to El Salvador and Honduras...
...As the U.S...
Vol. 47 • March 1983 • No. 3
