Page 2-Sunday, April 12, 1981-The Michigan Daily
EL SALVADOR POLICY RISKS 'CREDIBILITY GAP'
U.S. defense of junta criticized
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Reagan
administration is risking a "credibility
gap" by defending the Salvadoran jun-
ta against accusations that its forces
have murdered unarmed civilians,
critics of U.S. policy in El Salvador con-
tend.
The critics, including two members
of Congress, warned that the ad-
ministration will face increasing public
skepticism if it continues to try to
rationalize Salvadoran actions.
Administration officials sought
Thursday to counter published reports
blaming Salvadoran troops for the
murders of 30 men, women and teen-
agers who were killed Tuesday in a low-
income suburb of the capital of San
Salvador.
THE DEFENSE OF the junta - from
both White House and State Depar-
tment officials - came despite eyewit-
ness accounts saying government
troops and police dragged most of the
victims from their homes in the early
morning hours and shot them to death.
In a prepared statement, State
Department spokesman William Dyess
suggested that violence in El Salvador
was instigated by "extremist forces"
and argued that such incidents will con-
tinue until the government can "restore
stability."
A State Department official said
Friday that the Treasury police, the
branch of the junta's armed forces
which reportedly carried out the
Tuesday raid, were looking for a secret
meeting of guerrilla leaders when the
killings occurred.
THE OFFICIAL, who requested
anonymity, said the Treasury police
have told the U.S. embassy that
guerrillas opened fire, wounding three
police agents and the deaths resulted
from the ensuing gun battle.
However, the officials said that ver-
sion of events does not explain why the
bodies were moved to a nearby street
where they were found at dawn. Repor-
ters who visited the scene also said
some of the bullet wounds appeared to
be inflicted at close range.
Critics of the administration's aid to
El Salvador complained in statements
issued yesterday that the U.S. reaction
to the deaths appeared to be part of a
pattern of defending the junta
whenever its troops are accused of a,
killing.
"THERE'S ALWAYS a tendency to
put the best light on events," said Rep.
Michael Barnes (D-Md.). "It's going to
be more difficult for the administr-
ation to assume that its statements will
get much credibility."
"They (administration officials)
always hem and haw and try to
rationalize it," said another
congressional critic, Rep. Garry Studds
(D-Mass.). "I wish they would just for
once condemn an incident like this as
unjustifiable."
Studds said the "most grotesque
example" of the administration's
defense of the junta was last month's
statements by Secretary of State
Alexander Haig about the murder of
four American churchwomen last
December.
Haig said "the most prominent"
theory about how the murders occurred
was that the three Catholic nuns and a
laywoman were killed when they tried
to run a police roadblock.
Relatives and friends of the women
accused Haig and other administration
officials of trying to justify the killings
and waging a "smear campaign" to
discredit the missionaries.
Even State Department officials in-
volved in the investigation said
privately that the Haig roadblock
theory was never a leading explanation
for the murders.
The administration has sought the
blame leftist guerrillas for most of the
10,000 political murders in El Salvador
last year. Many Catholic and human
rights groups, however, have blamed
the government and right-wing
paramilitary groups for the vast
majority of slayings.
OF 4
FLYERS 2Z
AN A
Shuttle to Ann Arbor Airport Sat. & Sun.
every hour from the Michigan Union.
Anyone can fly for $20 by taking a Discov-
ery Flight with the Michigan Flyers. If you
are affiliated with the University of Michi-
gan call for information. 994-6208.
U.S. may back more
UN forces in Lebanon
From AP and UPI
BONN, West Germany - The Reagan
administration may support an expan-
ded U.N. peacekeeping force in
Lebanon if fighting continues there,
Secretary of State Alexander Haig said
yesterday.
Haig conferred with French
President Valery Giscard d'Estaing in
Paris and West German Chancellor
Helmut Schmidt in Bonn, then flew
back to Washington after an eight-day,
nine-nation tour that focused on the
Middle East.
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SPORADIC CLASHES in Lebanon
are threatening to shatter a three-day-
old cease-fire between Syrian and
Christian forces. Haig described the
situation as "very serious."
Commenting on his meeting with
Giscard d'Estaing, Haig said: "We
discussed a role for the United Nations
in the situation, and perhaps it will be
necessary, if the parties themselves
cannot deal with it effectively, to con-
sider a peace-keeping force of some
kind."
"We do feel the matter is urgent and
we are involved in a number of coor-
dinated diplomatic activities," he said.
IN BEIRUT, a spokesperson for the
Phalange Party, which fields
Lebanon's largest Christian militia,
welcomed Haig's suggestion. "We have
taken note of the interest of the
secretary of state. We are now waiting
for these words to be put into effect as
soon as possible," the spokesperson
said.
The United Nations already has a
battered peacekeeping force in south
Lebanon. But the idea of expanding its
mandate to police another war in Beirut
was not expected to be greeted en-
thusiastically at the United Nations,
where the Soviet Union would almost
certainly veto the proposal if it ever got
as far as the Security Council, obser-
vers said.
The Syrians also would object and
Lebanese President Elias Sarkis, who
must contend with rival factions both in
and outside of his delicate government,
has said he is against the idea.
Syrian units shelled the Christian
stronghold of Zahle, 30 miles east of
Beirut, for eight days before the latest
cease-fire took hold Wednesday. The
Syrians also traded artillery fire in
Beirut withrChristians and units of the
recently reconstructed Lebanese
national army.
IN BRIEF
Compiled from Associated Press and
United Press international reports
Afghan rebels gain control
of second largest city
NEW DELHI, India-Moslem rebels b5attled Soviet and Afghan gover-
nment forces in 23 of Afghanistan's 29 provinces yesterday, and the
guerrillas seized control of the second largest city of Kandahar, informed
sources reported. They also said Afghan troops were systematically
massacring hundreds of villagers.
The Afghan army, cut by defections and casualties from 90,000 to 30,000,
suffered another blow, meanwhile. A lieutenant, pretending he was on a test
run, drove his Soviet-made tank across the Pakistani border and asked fdr
asylum, a source close to Pakistan's Defense Ministry reported.
A Western diplomatic source in New Delhi said he had confirmation that
Kandahar, a city of 200,000 some 285 miles southwest of Kabul, fell to the in-
surgents, who have gone on the offensive with the spring thaw.
House Reps, conservative Dens
rally behind modified budget
WASHINGTON-Conservative Democrats in the House are rallying with
Republicans behind a slightly modified version of President Reagan's
economic plan, despite a week of intensive efforts by Democratic leaders to
unify the party.
The developing coalition could bury a proposed "Democratic alternative"
unveilled last week. And key Democrats were becoming openly skeptical of
whether any scheme could be conconcted to attract the party's conser-
vatives without alienating its liberals.
Despite an unexpected setback in the Senate Budget Committee that
Reagan allies insisted was temporary, the budget-trimming portion of the
president's plan seemed in far better shape than his accompanying tax-cut
proposal as Congress began its two-week Easter recess.
Atlanta search continues
ATLANTA-About 125 volunteers, some armed with machetes, searched
without success yesterday for some clue that would enable police to crack
the baffling ,20-month string of slayings of young blacks in Atlanta.
The 2 -h our search was concentrated along the banks of the Chat-
tahoochee River and in sparsely populated areas of southwest Fulton Coun-
ty, where the bodies of many of the victims have been found.
It was the 26th such weekend effort and one group of 32 volunteers traveled
all night from Trenton, N.J., to participate.
Twenty-three bodies have been found over the past 20 months and two
other young blacks are listed as missing.
East Germany warns Poland
not to stray from Leninism
BERLIN-East German leader Erich Honecker warned Polish authorities
yesterday not to stray from the Leninist line, saying there was no alternative
to Soviet-style communism. He also called for a Soviet bloc economic sum-
mit on Poland's economic chaos.
"Without a single deletion, Lenin's recognition that there is no third way
between bourgeois and socialist ideology remains valid today," the East
German Communist Party chief said.
"Models for a 'renewed socialism,' from wherever they come, always
show themselves unsuitable," Honecker told the opening session of East
Germany's six-day-Communist Party Congress.
The term "renewal" is used to describe the social and political
liberalization under way in Poland since last summer's labor strikes that
ended with government recognition of the independent union Solidarity.
Seventh century synagogue
unearthed in Israel
WASHINGTON-A rare synagogue that survived the seventh century
Islamic conquest of Palestine has been excavated in Israel, indicating some
Jews were allowed to practice their religion openly after the invasion, ar-
chaeologists say.
The first thorough excavation of the site also showed that the synagogue
was constructed over an even older, previously unknown Jewish temple, the
National Georgaphic Society said yesterday.
The newer synagogue, dedicated in 564 A.D., served worshipers for 150 to
200 years before being abandoned and allowed to decay, said Eric Meyers
and Carol Meyers, a husband-wife archaeologist team in the religion depar-
tment of Duke University.
Jailed terrorist denied
political status in Britain
LONDON-Britain stood firm yesterday against granting political status
to prisoners convicted of terrorism despite the election to Parliament of IRA
guerrilla Bobby Sands, who declared he has no intention of resigning or en-
ding his 42-day-old hunger strike.
A spokesperson for the British government in Northern Ireland said San-
ds' hunger strike would cause "no change of policy on political status-the
government has made clear on a number of occasions the principles by
which it is guided."
Prison officials also said Sands would receive no special privileges
because of his newly won status as a member of Parliament.
CZiiP Mtclpgna lg
Vol. XCI, No. 157
Sunday, April 12, 1981
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