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When Things Were Black and White
| Article
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10632 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1993 |
2,580 Words |
| Author
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Richard Schifter
Richard Schifter has served as assistant secretary of state
for human rights and humanitarian affairs and as deputy U.S.
representative to the UN Security Council. |
As the recent report of the El Salvador Truth Commission reveals, the history of that country over the last 13 years demonstrates both the effectiveness of the U.S. human rights policy and its failures. As the government of El Salvador battled the FMLN insurgency in the years 1980 to 1983, the Salvadoran army and so-called death squads engaged in large-scale killings of noncombatants suspected of some association with the guerrilla forces.
In those years, the Reagan administration did not use the influence that the United States had as the principal supplier of military and economic assistance to El Salvador. In December 1983, however, then-Vice President Bush traveled to El Salvador and made it quite clear to both the civilian and military leadership of that country that U.S. assistance would come to an end if these killings of noncombatants did not stop.
The figures of unexplained killings showed a substantial drop thereafter, as the military leadership evidently sought to adhere to new standards. The leadership was, however, never quite able to get all the lower echelons to adhere to these standards. Moreover, in November 1989, when they began to respond to what turned out to be the last FMLN offensive, some members of the top echelon of the military reverted to past practices and ordered the murder of six Jesuit priests. Outrageous as the murders of the Jesuits were, they were an exception for the post-1983 period.
Our human rights policy brought about significant changes in the standard operating procedures of the Salvadoran security forces, helping the Salvadoran people move their country toward democracy. What the policy and our various assistance programs failed to accomplish is to provide El Salvador with a fair and effective judicial system.
Most Americans do not focus, as a matter of daily routine, on the behavior and attitudes of foreign governments. When they do, their concern is not so much how a foreign government relates to the United States but how it treats its own people. We like democracies, even if the feeling is not mutual. We detest dictatorships, even those that want to be friendly to the United States. Americans differ in that regard from most other peoples.
In other parts of the world, many citizens have historically cast a wary eye across the border, concerned about what their neighbors might be up to. History and geography have made us feel more secure, and, given the principles on which our country was
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