Page 2 - The Michigan Daily Sunday, August 12, 1984 Church criticizes hike in aid to El Salvador SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (UPI) -- The Roman Catholic Church said yesterday that an additional $70 million in U.S. military aid to the government of President Jose Napoleon Duarte will only prolong the four-and-a-half-year-old civil war. In north central Nicaragua, the Sandinista Popular Army clashed with a U.S.-backed rebel force of between 1,600 and 1,800 men, a military source said. A CATHOLIC church spokesman in San Salvador said, "We see the military aid with very little optimism because it prolongs the conflict and will continue the pain and suffering of the people." Congress approved Friday an additional $70 million in military aid and $120 million in economic aid for the moderate Christian Democratic government. Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas said in his home at the Metropolitan Cathedral last Sunday that increasing aid to one side in the conflict only spurs the other to match the increases. "AMONG THE groups (that are) fighting, when one receives more aid, the others seek a balance, and so the calvary of the people is progressively extended," a church spokesman said. Leftist rebels of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) have battled to topple the U.S.-backed government in a civil war that has left more than 40,000 dead. Vice President Rodolfo Castillo called the Congressional action "a very important decision ... that reflects faith and confidence in the current government that (it) will use the funds to benefit the people." The military aid will be used for "equipment ... needed to make the armed forces more mobile," Castillo said. A Sandinista spokesman said rebels of the U.S.- backed Nicaraguan Democratic Force, or FDN, crossed into Nicaragua from Honduras recently and were attempting to set up camp in the area surrounding Waslala, a town about 120 miles north of Managua in mountainous Matagalpa province. Details of the fighting were not immediately available. Salvadoran refugees portray life of fear f Continued from Page 1 > still in charge of the country's military. MENDOZA, A 21-year-old from San Salvador, said 163 towns have been bombed since the election, and at least 400 people have been killed by the government for "subversive and communist" behavior. Subversive and communist behavior inclues "complaining about water" -. which only 20 percent of the people, have - and "complaining about, transportation and jobs. If you are in a school group, you are called a communist," Mendoza said in faltering English. Failure to vote is also an illegal act, with possible punishments of a fine, loss of job, jail, death, or "disappearance," he added. THE GUERILLA-backed opposition to El Salvador's government, the Farabundo Marti Forces of National Liberation (FMLN), controls a third of the country, Mendoza said. He claimed that the FMLN-controlled areas are democratic, not fascist like the controlling government of the country. "We are living in a totalitarian regime, and we want a democracy," Mendoza said. A bill, currently before 'Congress would increase military aid to El. Salvador to $117 million in the upcoming fiscal year. THE REASONS for the United States to send aid to El Salvador are vague - one explanation is that it gives "a pretext of an anti-communist stance," another refugee, Alyandro Rodriguez,; said through an interpreter. Rodriguez, 44, said President Reagan is supporting the Salvadoran government in order to protect the North American firms - including Sears, ITT, IBM, and McDonald's - which have interests in El Salvador. Rodriguez, who fled with his family acr-pes the United States' border two i.i ths ago, is now living at the Sanctuary, a church-based group sheltering refugees ina secret location. HE SAID although there is not much actual fighting in the large cities like San Salvador, "part of the army, national police, national guard, the treasury - each one has its squadrons. So they have access to common information. "When there is a story that someone says something negative about the government, (government people) dress up in civilian clothes, with weapons, and take (the person) away to secret prisons. (Then) the government decides whether to kill them or take them to intelligence areas to ask questions." He added that many of the people who are taken away are never heard from again. Rodriguez, who was a builder in El Salvador, explained that the judicial branch of the government is run by the military, and that the judicial process is "somewhat arbitrary. There is no judge, no jury," he said. Since Duarte's first two-year stint as president in 1980, more than one. million Salvadorans have fled the country. In addition, over 50,000 of the country's six million people have been killed by government forces, the refugees said. RODRIGUEZ also said that since Duarte was first elected president, inflation has escalated eight-fold. A five pound carton of milk that in 1980 cost $3 is now $24. Despite this exorbitant inflation rate, workers have not received any raises for the past four years. Fewer than 10 percent of the Salvadoran refugees in the U.S. are granted political asylum. The rest either never apply for asylum for fear of being deported, or apply for political amnesty and are refused and sent back, McCloskey said. DOUG McMAHON/Daily Alyando Rodriquez, left, and Saul Mondoza, refugees from El Salvador, speak against U.S. aid to their country at Wesley Hall on E. Huron Friday night. MARK WEISBROT, another information about people who had been member of the LASC, said the U.S. killed by the Salvadoran government. government "is reluctant to grant "Three of my friends were shot and asylum because they would have to killed. I was shot also," he said, but "I admit that they're supporting a brutal was not killed." government. So people are deported Asked if he will ever return to his back to El Salvador, where they are native- land, Mendoza responded, "I thrown in jail, and some are even came here as a student two years ago, killed." but after six months, I will become Mendoza, who went to a missionary undocumented (an illegal alien). school in El Salvador, described how he Hopefully all the problems in my was named on a death list while country will be finished and I will go working with others to collect home then. But right now I can't." HAPPENINGS SundayamNrhCmuMcin Su yam. North Campus, Michigan HRD - course, "Grammar, a Modern Review," 1 Music - Medieval Festival, 11 a.m. to CFT - Wizards, 7:45 p.m.; The Lord of the Rings, p.m., 4051 LSA; "Platform Skills: Effective Public 7 p.m., Music School; Summer Choir, 4 p.m., 9:15 p.m., Michigan Speaking," 1p.m., 130 LSA. Rackham. CFT - Wizards, 7:45 p.m.; The Lord of the Rings, Performance Network - American Buffalo, 8 Monday 9:15p.m., Michigan p.m., 408 W. Washington. Turner Clinic - Intergenerational Women's PUltimate Frisbee - practice, 5:30 p.m., Fuller ILIR - Summer School for Women Workers, 9 Group, 10a.m.,1010 Wall St. Send hnnouncenients to Happenings, The Michigan Daily, 420 Mpynard, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109.