Deputy Michael D. Higgins has been given permission to raise on the Adjournment the need for a statement by the Minister for Foreign Affairs on the position in San Salvador with special regard to the position of Irish citizens, the Sisters of St. Clare and members of the Franciscan Order who are in the area being bombed.
Adjournment Debate. - El Salvador Conflict.
I should like to thank you, Sir, and the Ceann Comhairle for having allowed me raise this matter of great urgency on the Adjournment.
Since I received permission to raise the matter on the Adjournment I have had some information from San Salvador that suggests that, in one of the areas of that city, one of the Irish citizens about whom I spoke, was speaking from a house that was actually being bombarded at the time.
I am very anxious not to create any anxiety among the relatives of Irish citizens working in San Salvador. There is nothing to suggest at present that any of them has been injured. What I want to make clear is this: last night the figures being broadcast on the wire services suggested a figure for San Salvador of 650 people dead and approximately 1,000 injured. Those figures were made up, I think, of something like 146 troops — it was suggested — 50 ordinary civilians and close to 350 guerrillas working for the FMLN. Unfortunately, the figures that have appeared this morning and later today indicate that the numbers of dead in San Salvador are very likely to have exceeded 1,000. It is also clear that the number injured has increased. The present information available to me suggests that in the rest of the country — that is, outside San Salvador itself — the level of killings and injuries may be running to such an extent that we may double the figures I have given. By the time this debate will have concluded, we may be speaking about some 3,000 people in El Salvador who will have lost their lives.
I might give a little background to events in that country. It is very important that we express our solidarity with our citizens there. In the area at the foot of the volcano in San Salvador — I might add I visited San Salvador in 1981 — at the back of the Camino Roile Hotel, a poor ghetto to which many migrants go, is where some of our nuns have been offering and operating their mission.
At present in the area of San Antonia Abad, the area in which the Sisters of St. Clare are working, there is no evidence of killings in their immediate vicinity. What is true is that the hall or the church adjoining that area is at present crowded with women and children, many of whom have been injured. The information from our citizens working there — who have shown so much solidarity with the poor of El Salvador for so long — is that the facility they are making available and which the people are running, is at present without food.
Equally and far more serious, is the position of some members of the Franciscan Order and others in the general area of Soya Pongo. There is evidence to suggest that, to date, Soya Pongo is under some assault. It was that area which was being bombarded some time around 3 o'clock or 4 o'clock this afternoon, Irish time. In the area where they are there has been no facility for the delivery of medical supplies for even the injured for some time now, and certainly not today.
It is terribly important that we realise what is happening. As I have said, I visited El Salvador in 1981. At that time I was very convinced that conditions did not exist there for the holding of free elections. I had very definite reasons for saying so. I was very glad that Ireland did not subscribe to the observation process there. The electoral register was seriously defective. Most rural women were deprived of the vote for the simple reason that the requirement to vote carried the need for an identity pass. I clearly recall the director of elections, Dr. Bustomante, telling me — when I raised the question of peasant women not having identity cards —"What do they want identity cards for, they are going nowhere?" At that time there were other things wrong. There was certainly no question of equal access to the parties contesting the election. It was very clear that the country was being terrorised by the death squads directly responsible to the Arena Party and its leader, Colonel D'Aubisson.
It is very interesting in this very week when people are being murdered in El Salvador, to note that the Guatemalan President stated on a visit abroad that the Arena Party are in fact organising deaths in Guatemala itself, including seeking to terrorise people from left wing sympathies by gouging out their eyes. Mind you, this is a declaration by the Head of the Guatemalan State.
This tragedy has continued in El Salvador since 1979. I recall many times having being asked to indicate what was the Nicaraguan response to meeting the conditions of Esquipulas 11. The truth was that, while the Nicaraguans were seeking to meet the conditions of the central American Peace Agremeent, very little pressure was being put on the Salvadorean Government. The Salvadorean Government receive one million dollars of assistance a day from the United States to its army. At present that army is using gas to empty homes in the two areas I have mentioned; they are dropping bombs in these areas. There has been a statement from the State Department, which stinks of hypocrisy, saying that every effort is being made to ensure there will be no civilian casualities. Bombs are being dropped indiscriminately in these areas which are perceived to be held by the guerrilla forces of the FMLN. In addition, helicopters with externally mounted gun systems, are being used to strafe the areas, hence the high level of civilian casualties which, at the low figure given yesterday, was one of 1,000 injured.
I am very interested in the Irish response, but also that of the Twelve, to the El Salvadorean component of Esquipulas II. Very little pressure was exerted on the Salvadorean Government in relation to the military build-up; very little in relation to the question of the much recommended land reform necessary; the whole question of the need for changing the electoral law; the need for normalising the democratic process or on the need for constructive talks with people like Ruban Seomra, Guillermo Ungo and others. In fact, every single time the Salvadoreans appeared to be solving their problems internally the presence of a large American underwriter for the Salvadorean Army, and for the death squad directly, served as a major obstruction.
This is a terribly tragic time. It gives me no pleasure to have to say that the current information in relation to the Jesuit Order — in that a human life lost anywhere is a human life — is that there is at present serious concern about four members of the Society of Jesus. I recall speaking, at that time, to Ambassador Dean Hinton in his home in San Salvador when he moved his finger along the map of EI Salvador and said: "There they go; it begins with catechetics; then it becomes co-operatives and the next thing is they are Marxists/Leninists". As far as he was concerned the Jesuits were people spreading Communism. It is believed that four members of the Society of Jesus are missing at present. Of course, the first clerical casualty in San Salvador, or the best known, was the late Archbishop Romero whereas in fact the first was a member of the Society of Jesus, a Fr. Ortiz. I remember I spoke to his grandmother in 1981 who described the manner in which he had been killed. She said that, after he had been killed, the wheel of a lorry was backed over his face so that she had difficulty recognising him.
I do not intend to say any more except that we in Ireland at this time must send whatever solidarity and guarantees we can to those of our citizens who not only are suffering a great deal this week but who have given solidarity to the people of El Salvador, particularly the poorer sections, in their very difficult plight. I am very interested in hearing the Minister's response and the action Ireland will be recommending in association with the Twelve.
I thank Deputy Higgins for raising this matter on the Adjournment. The present situation in El Salvador is indeed a tragedy. The Government share the Deputy's concern for the people of El Salvador and for the ongoing political problems facing that country.
The Deputy said we need to realise what is happening in the country. As the Deputy is aware, President Alfredo Cristiani of the Nationalist Republican Alliance who assumed office on 1 June 1989 began exploratory talks in September with the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, FMLN, with a view to the cessation of hostilities. Further discussion took place in October in Costa Rica when the FMLN proposed the creation of a human rights supervision committee comprising members of the Government, the Church, the armed forces and the FMLN. However, as the Deputy is aware, following the bombing of a trade union headquarters and the death of ten people the FMLN withdrew from the discussions on 3 November saying that they were doing so until protection could be guaranteed for opposition trade unions. Since that time violence has intensified in EI Salvador and most of San Salvador's northern and eastern suburbs have been under FMLN control since last Saturday when they launched a nationwide offensive. The FMLN claim to have closed the northern and eastern approaches to the capital.
The President of EI Salvador, Mr. Cristiani, has frequently said he wishes to reach a negotiated end to the war in EI Salvador but as Deputy Higgins rightly said he faces resistance within his own Arena party, some extremist sections of which have been linked to the death squads.
And the leader of the party.
Ireland, along with our partners in the Twelve, has supported the Esquipulas peace process in Central America and considers that the impetus for negotiations should come from within the region itself. We would encourage both sides in EI Salvador to return to the negotiation table as quickly as possible.
Our immediate concern in relation to the developments I have just spoken of in San Salvador must, of course, be the protection and the welfare of the approximately 12 Irish citizens who are currently in that city. My Department have made contact with the Sisters of St. Clare here in Ireland who have confirmed that their three Irish born sisters are safe and unharmed and away from the main area of fighting in the city. Contact has also been made with the provincial office of the Franciscan Order who have informed my Department that six of their eight Irish born priests there are safe and continuing efforts are being made to contact the remaining two. Deputy Higgins spoke of the Jesuits. My information is that the one Irish-born Jesuit is not among the casualties. Deputy Higgins and the House can be assured that the Honorary Consul in San Salvador is closely monitoring the situation and has been asked to submit a full and detailed report as soon as possible.