St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 8

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH May 6, 1981 El Salvador Four-Month Death Toll In El Salvador Is 7, 780 government eventually may agree to talks. Dinlnmatir nnalvcte Aotoe-t I previously trouble-free southern El Salvador and 47 more people were killed across the nation. Police said the bullet-riddled bodies of 15 victims were dumped by assassins at different sites Tuesday. The Salvadoran Human Rights Commission said three of the victims were women between the ages of 16 and 24 who were taken during a raid by security forces at a refugee camp at La Bermuda, 25 miles north of San Salvador.

Witnesses said 100 troops swept through the camp April 28 and dragged off 28 people who were accused by two masked civilians of being leftists. SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (UPI) A total of 7,780 people were killed in the first four months of the year in political violence in El Salvador, raising to at least 22,000 the number slain in 16 months of strife, a Catholic Church human rights group reported. The death total was reported Tuesday by the Catholic Church's Legal Aid Society, whose estimates on the killings are considered the most reliable in the country. The report said 44 percent of the victims were peasants and that 857 people were killed during the 9 p.m.-to-dawn curfew. Meanwhile, fighting spread to Gang FROM PAGE ONE Jon the ringleader.

"He's on the street egain, but it will be hard to prove he's Jnvolved. -The suspected gang boss was 'charged two years ago with robbery of Jthe downtown Jaccard's Jewelers shop which occurred while he was on at the St. Louis 'Workhouse where he was then serving a lyearlong sentence on two theft convictions. He was implicated by two other suspects in that case. But when the case came to trial, he was acquitted.

selling them out. Still another complicating factor has been the attitude of the United States. Given its heavy economic and military aid to the junta, many diplomatic observers believe that the United States is the only power capable of pressuring the junta to negotiate. But the United States, both publicly and behind the scenes, has stayed carefully neutral on the subject. The Reagan administration is committed to a peaceful settlement, and it doesn't rule out mediation or negotiations at some point.

But it is backing Duarte in pinning its hopes on the election process. "We seek an end to the killing. We want a peaceful solution. We want a political process without violence," said Donald E. Mathes, the State Department's official spokesman for Latin American affairs.

"Obviously, negotiations could be part of any answer for El Salvador, so we're not opposed to what's proposed (by Rodriguez)," Mathes said. "But the framework of the discussions would have to be worked out. Who's going to participate? Where will the talks be held?" At the same time, Mathes said, "The Salvadoran government doesn't feel it has a mandate to negotiate away their government. So, the rules of the game should be discussed. But the game itself should be a political process that ends in elections.

We see that as the most likely route to peace." Many in the opposition, however, see the proposed elections as a charade. They note that only those who agree to stop fighting will be allowed to participate apparently necessitating a surrender on the battlefield before their names can be placed on the ballot. They also point out that numerous opposition leaders have been assassinated, apparently by right-wing "government security forces." The same fate could await Ungo or other opposition leaders even if they could persuade the guerrillas to stop fighting. Lionel Gomez, a former top official of El Salvador's land reform program who fled the country after his boss was assassinated, remarked several weeks ago: "Who's going to run against Duarte? His brother? His dog? All the credible candidates have had to leave or be killed." Rivera Damas, in an interview Monday, said he hoped a dialogue among various political factions would precede any elections. "The church and other elements want a dialogue so the elections will be accepted by all the people," the archbishop said.

Despite the obstacles, however, there are some who feel that Duarte's to propose negotiations, but he repeated the willingness of the left to hold peace talks. He said it would probably take a third party to bring the two sides together, but he didn't specify an intermediary. One factor complicating the prospects for peace talks in this small, mountainous Central-American country of 4.5 million people has been the army's release of a captured letter signed by opposition leader Guillermo Ungo and three other opposition figures. The letter, dated Feb. 3, was addressed to the guerrilla commanders.

In the letter, Ungo and the others spoke frankly of the weakened position of the left after the failure of its January offensive. They noted "some skepticism, weariness and fear among friends and allies." They noted that the United States had stepped up its military aid to the junta. And they foresaw increased diplomatic pressure to negotiate. In light of those factors, the letter proposed that the Democratic Revolutionary Front headed by Ungo and its guerrilla groups offer to negotiate as a tactical maneuver. "We start from the supposition that it is an auxiliary maneuver of the major operation, which is war," the letter said.

The army, which published the letter last week, seized on it as proof that the left wasn't sincere. It said any proposal by the opposition to negotiate was "based on lies, deceit, betrayal and terrorism." Authoritative sources in the opposition confirmed that the document is authentic, but they portrayed it as a 3-month-old working paper in which the opposition was struggling to develop a policy. Still other observers suggested that the document was an attempt by Ungo, a civilian politician, to persuade his own hard-line guerrillas to negotiate. They saw it as his way of sugar-coating a bitter pill. One diplomatic analyst familiar with the internal politics of the opposition put it this way: "If you're a guerrilla fighter and somebody says, 'I'll negotiate and I'll tell you when to put down your what would you say?" Ungo, the analyst suggested, was trying to sell his reluctant guerrillas on peace talks by couching the idea in purely practical terms.

Indeed, the letter itself listed under "Danger that our leadership should interpret our manuever as 'surrender' or capitulation." That was taken as a sign that Ungo feared that his own soldiers might think he was I i i inemuraers oi me Known associates FROM PAGE ONE International communism." As for negotiations, Gutierrez in what may have been a warning to more moderate elements in his own government said: "No one, absolutely no one in EI Salvador can usurp the right to conclude any type of arrangement behind the people's back. When we refer to a political and democratic solution, we refer exclusively to elections." Col. Jose Guillermo Garcia, minister of defense, promptly echoed those sentiments. The armed forces, he said, were behind Gutierrez. "I refer to a political solution," Garcia said, "which to us instead of dialogue consists of voting, through which the people can decide." Manuel Morales Ehrlich, press secretary to junta President Jose Napoleon Duarte, was careful to say that the government would look at any specific proposal made by the opposition.

But he, too, took a strong position against a negotiated settlement. If the left is serious about negotiations, Duarte 's spokesman told the Post-Dispatch, they should lay down their weapons a condition that would be tantamount to surrender. "It's very hard to believe them," Morales Ehrlich said. "I'm sure if they'd say: 'OK, I'll drop the everyone would say, But I don't see them doing that. All they do is go to the international press and say these things, and they continue to plant bombs and attack the people of El Salvador.

I don't know how to understand that type of negotiation." He noted that last December, Monsignor Arturo Rivera Damas, the acting archbishop of San Salvador, proposed a negotiated settlement. The junta responded favorably then, but the opposition said no. Morales Ehrlich demanded that the left stop fighting and join the election process launched by the junta. "But they don't want that," he said of the opposition. "They want to negotiate a government.

But the people of El Salvador don't want to negotiate a government. I don't think Mr. (Ronald) Reagan would negotiate with the Russians about the government of the United States." Rodriguez, who first disclosed the new flexibility of the opposition, expressed disappointment at the junta's hard-line policies. "They're trying for a military victory," he said. "In the next three months, when their offensive fails, then maybe they'll think about talks." He said the junta's position would make it more difficult for the opposition DoQarsSense A Tuesday feature with consumer news.

Dial 342-1400 for home delivery of the Post-Dispatch. Sale with Wrist Reg. most of whom spend five months of their last year on work release before being sent to half-way houses operated by private agencies. The Missouri Division of Corrections opened the facility in 1978. Police began to break the case last week, thanks largely to anonymous tips that led to the arrest of four suspects.

Virtually none of the stolen gold and silver jewelry has been recovered, however. Armed with a search warrant, police raided the St. Louis County home of another suspect last week, but found nothing except a price tag from Zales Jewelers. In the holdup of its downtown store April 21, eight to 10 robbers took watches, rings and other articles valued at as much as $100,000. However, the evidence was insufficient to arrest the suspect.

County authorities said they have heard the gang has been finding it tough to sell or even store the stolen goods. "It's apparently too hot to handle," said Thomas DePriest, chief warrant officer for the prosecuting attorney. Jewelry valued at nearly $50,000 was taken from the Famous-Barr store in Jennings and unreported lesser amounts in the other holdups April 11 at Jaccard's in Clayton, April 17 at Blust's Jewelers in Overland and Thursday at Stix Baer Fuller Co. in Jennings. Of the other five suspects, a second one reportedly identified in the Famous-Barr holdup is being sought by police, and another arrested Saturday was released Monday without being charged.

Of three charged with first-degree robbery, two are being held on warrants in the Zales holdup: George "Petey" Woods, 22, of the 5000 block of Beacon Avenue, and Vanessa Scott, 25, of the 5000 block of Edna Street, Ferguson. Charged in the Stix holdup and being held in the County Jail is Liesl Spivey, 19, of the 3100 block of Gary Drive, Velda Village. 'of his may make it more difficult to get i informers now, police noted. The murder victims were Kenneth kMcClellan, whose body was found Friday in his North Side home, and Major J. Bogan, whose body was found i April 28 in his Berkeley home.

McClellan, 26, had been shot in the head. Bogan, 29, was beaten, shot in the head and chest and stabbed in the neck with a pair of scissors. Morton said Bogan was identified Monday as one of the Famous-Barr robbers, and Crump described him as a good friend of the gang leader. But police believe his killing may have stemmed from his involvement in drug traffic. Arthur Schulte, superintendent at the honor center, said the suspected leader has given no indication of further crime or other trouble since he was transferred there from the penitentiary at Jefferson City.

He has been serving his current sentence since Feb. 14, 1980, and with credit for pretrial jail time, his sentence is scheduled for commutation Aug. 25. "Well, I'm not familiar with all that," said Schulte when told of the 'police accusations. "We're very sensitive about things like this, I don't know why they haven't informed us." The center, which is the old St.

'Mary's Nursing Home at 1548 Papin Street, has as many as 120 inmates, difference of opinion between Duarte's Christian Democratic Party the civilian element in the government and the military. They speculate that peace talks might be in Duarte's interests, though perhaps not in the army's. If the army were to lose, its need for a civilian front, Duarte unless he broadens his political base could be swept away. "Negotiations are necessary for both sides," observed one well-connected Latin American diplomat. "What happens if the guerrillas win? The Christian Democrats disappear from the political map in El Salvador.

But what happens if the army wins? The same thing! So Duarte and the Christian Democrats know they must negotiate, and the left knows it must negotiate, too." In addition, there is strong diplomatic pressure from several sides. Mexico, which is close to the leftist opposition, is pushing the opposition toward the conference table. Venezuela, which supports Duarte, is pushing the junta. Internationally, various Social Democratic parties in Western Europe and elsewhere are leaning on the left. And international groups of Christian Democrats are leaning on Duarte.

Rivera Damas, in his Sunday sermons, delicately leans on both sides, denouncing repression from both left and right and calling for a peaceful end to the bloody conflict. In the United States, pressure for negotiations is rising on Capitol Hill. On Thursday the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to restrict U.S. military aid to El Salvador. The junta, among other things, would have to control its right-wing "security forces" and demonstrate its willingness to negotiate.

The vote was 26-7. Eight of the 15 Republicans on the panel voted yes. In the end, the overriding factor may be old-fashioned power politics. In any war, it often happens that the weaker side says, "Let's talk," and the stronger side says, "Let's fight." It may take a military success by the guerrillas during the rainy season which is just beginning in El Salvador to scare the junta into negotiations. Despite the problems, the search for a diplomatic solution goes on, even as new piles of bodies are found at Salvadoran roadsides.

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