EL SALVADOR PRESIDENT REFUSES TO REOPEN JESUIT MURDER CASE
SAN SALVADOR (CWNews.com) - The president of El Salvador on
Thursday refused to reopen an investigation into the 1989
murder of six Jesuits, claiming the act would reopen old
wounds.
A regional human rights court had recommended that El
Salvador investigate those responsible for the murder of
five Spanish Jesuits, a Salvadorean Jesuit, their cook, and
her daughter at a prominent university at the height of the
country's 12-year civil war. But President Francisco Flores
said doing so would violate an amnesty agreement that was
part of the peace process that ended the war in 1992.
Right-wing deaths squads, composed of army officers, were
accused of the murders, citing their suspicions that the
Jesuits were sympathizers of Marxist rebels.
The Inter-American Human Rights Commission, part of the
Organization of American States (OAS), last month
criticized the government's decision not to prosecute army
officers who subsequently were implicated in ordering the
massacre. "We don't think little of the OAS nor of the UCA,
but we do respect peace and its enormous price," Flores told
a news conference. "We think highly of the peace and
stability we have."
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