Another civil war will not take place

Once again, the treaty signed in Chapultepec, Mexico on January 16, 1992 -which paralyzed the country's workplaces and was celebrated with hugs, tears and songs between former enemies- is on the minds of Salvadorans as they get ready to celebrate its sixth anniversary today.

For those who actively took part in the conflict -which left more than 75,000 dead- the peace celebrations are intimately linked to the causes of the war even though their views are as divergent as right and left.

For ex-president Alfredo Cristiani -whose signature is imprinted in the treaty next to those of the former guerrilla movement's representatives- the origins of the civil war date back to the 1930s, when Latin America's first communist movement was crushed by the military regime in power at the time.

After that, Cristiani told members of the foreign press, leftist movements had no chance to carry out their own plans for the country's development.

``The main cause for the war was the lack of space (the leftists) had to develop their own economic plans,'' commented Cristiani, current President of the governing party, the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA in Spanish), and one of the potential presidential candidates for the country's 1999 elections.

For Cristiani, these political ``spaces'' that for decades were closed -many times by the barrel of a gun- to leftist movements, were the detonators of the war, and not the poor social conditions, as assured by other sectors of the country.

Because of this, according to Cristiani, an unarmed ex-guerrilla movement, transformed into a political party and with a respectable percent of the seats in Congress (27 out of the possible 82 seats), added to the ``democratic state that we are forming'' and makes it impossible for another war to take place.

Two sides to every story

According to the Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation (FMLN in Spanish), the causes of the war had to do not only with an intolerance of the left, but also with the systematic and long established violation of human rights by the armed forces.

For the Head of the FMLN, Salvador Sánchez (ex ``Commander'' Leonel González), even though the lack of progressive movements in El Salvador did generate violence, the ``Army's role in violating human rights'' acted as a catalyst to the break out of war.

Sánchez told the press that ``the causes of the conflict'' were solved by the peace agreement, and that unlike before, now political tolerance exists.

The peace agreements

Cristiani assured that the army was the institution which best fulfilled the peace agreements and that the FMLN did so halfway. The former president stated that ``the only obligation was to give up their weapons, and they only halfway did this.''

Cristiani cited the continuous findings of arsenals, not only in El Salvador, but also in Nicaragua, after 1992 to back up his thesis.

He added that the Salvadoran Army was reduced from 63,000 to half that figure, in accordance to the peace agreements, and that it exhibited ``exemplary'' conduct, because ``it made the best effort to achieve peace.''

Sánchez -whose signature is also on the peace treaty- agreed with Cristiani that another civil war is not possible in the country, although he highlighted that this will depend on the government's ``good will'' towards achieving the few remaining -and unfulfilled- points in the treaty.

These points have to do with the Land Transfer Program (PTT in Spanish) to ex combatants, the Rural Housing Program, and the payment to the Fund of the War's Wounded.

Today, the sixth anniversary of the peace treaty will be celebrated by the governing party and the FMLN in separate ceremonies although the 27 congressmen of the former guerrilla force will have to participate in the official celebrations because they have a public position.