U.N. Says Salvadoran Rebels Have Given Up Their Weapons

SAN SALVADOR —  Hoping to put to rest an episode that devastated the credibility of El Salvador’s former guerrillas and embarrassed the United Nations, U.N. officials certified Wednesday that the onetime rebels have finally surrendered the bulk of their weapons.

An explosion three months ago in a hidden arms dump in Nicaragua revealed that the leftist guerrillas, despite their assurances to the contrary, had hidden tons of weapons, including antiaircraft missiles, in violation of U.N.-brokered peace accords that ended El Salvador’s brutal 12-year civil war.

That discovery came as a major blow to U.N. monitors, who verified Dec. 15 that the rebels had complied with the accords and turned in all weapons. The United Nations labeled the rebel duplicity as the most serious violation of the accords to date.

Since the Nicaragua explosion, the former rebels have given up 120 more arms stashes in three countries, U.N. officials said Wednesday.

“We are hopeful that, this time, indeed, this is a full list,” said Augusto Ramirez Ocampo, chief of the U.N. peacekeeping mission here.

The former guerrillas have formed a legal political party retaining their rebel name, Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), and plan to participate in elections next March. “We consider the military structure of the FMLN has been ended and its members reintegrated . . . into the civilian, political and institutional life of the country,” Ramirez Ocampo said.

But the government and others on the right remain skeptical. They asked why the former rebels should be believed.

“I think we should analyze why, initially, they failed to include a huge amount of weaponry,” President Alfredo Cristiani said. “The government will act against future discoveries (of weapons) as though they (belong to) common criminals.”

Ramirez Ocampo, in a press conference at the U.N. mission’s headquarters, revealed that the FMLN had surrendered only about 70% of its weapons by the Dec. 15 deadline. The subsequent arms dumps, including more than 2 million rounds of ammunition and thousands of rifles, mortars and grenades, were found in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras.

The May 23 explosion of the secret arms depot in Nicaragua also uncovered hundreds of passports and extensive files on Latin America’s leading businessmen. Investigators have said the files were linked to an international kidnaping ring. The FMLN has denied involvement in the ring, which is under investigation by the FBI and police agencies from three other countries.