Stalemate of Hate

From the international corridor, a U.S. 82nd Airborne major peered down into the rebel-held section of Santo Domingo. "Our motto," he said dryly, "is 'Out of the trenches by Christmas.' "

He might be optimistic. After nine weeks of stalemate and sniper fire, only faint progress was being made in settling the Dominican Republic's vicious little civil war. Last week the three-man OAS negotiating team discussed possible peace terms with Colonel Francisco Caamano Deno, leader of the Communist-infiltrated rebels, and Brigadier General Antonio Imbert Barreras, who heads the loyalist junta that runs most of the country. On the pivotal point of who would control the war-weary nation until elections, they were still far apart.

The Strike That Failed. The OAS plan actually was little more than an outline aimed at opening a door. It called for a return of the military to its barracks, full amnesty for all, the surrender of civilian arms to the OAS, and formation of an "impartial" provisional government to run the country until OAS-supervised elections could be held in six to nine months. In the meantime, the Inter-American Peace Force would remain to keep order.

The rebels' immediate response was typical. Leftist union leaders called a 72-hour general strike "to repudiate the criminal aggression to national sovereignty made by North American imperialism"; scores of agitators were rounded up throughout the country. Only after the strike flopped miserably (just seven of Santo Domingo's 40 factories shut down) were the rebels interested in getting down to business.

When U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker and the other members of the OAS team drove to rebel headquarters, crowds that had booed a few days before now were silent. Caamano suggested only a few changes in the proposals. He wanted the Inter-American Peace Force withdrawn within a month after the provisional government took power, demanded that civilian arms be turned over to the new government rather than the OAS. He dropped all pretext of becoming President himself, or of returning to the 1963 constitution of ousted President Juan Bosch. He did ask that the human rights provisions from the 1963 constitution be incorporated into a temporary institutional act to help prevent reprisals after the war--and there he had a point. Last week an OAS investigating team un covered seven bodies believed to have been rebel prisoners executed by loyalist troops outside the city. All in all, Caamano seemed so cooperative that Bunker could declare himself "optimistic" as he left the rebel zone.

A Click & a Bow. Now it was Imbert's turn to stir up the dust. Surprised and indignant, he thought the rebels were getting off too easily. "We are the government of the Dominican Republic! Free and sovereign!" he kept repeating. When the OAS team arrived at his congressional palace, Imbert kept them waiting more than ten minutes. Then out he came, clicking his heels and bowing stiffly to Bunker. The first sentence of the junta's counterproposals set the tone: "The Government of National Reconstruction is a collective provisional government"--in other words, it was already the country's provisional regime. Imbert agreed that it might be broadened further by a "consultative commission composed of representatives of the different democratic sectors of the country"--but it was not to be thrust aside. He demanded that the OAS force depart as soon as a peace formula is approved, that there be no amnesties, and that officers who deserted to the rebels be tried before a military court. Above all, Imbert wanted every last Communist kicked out of the country. And that was the position he stolidly stuck to throughout the week.

At the heart of the stalemate is an irreconcilable hatred that no amount of gentle OAS persuasion is likely to change. In Washington there was talk of applying some economic screws. The OAS could make the rebel zone un tenable by cutting off supplies of food and water; or it could tame Imbert by cutting off the aid funds he needs for his government's $7,000,000 monthly payroll.

Some sort of action was obviously needed. At week's end fighting flared for the first time outside Santo Domingo -- in San Francisco de Macoris, the country's third largest city 60 miles northwest of the capital. According to reports, some 40 rebels armed with a bazooka, rifles and hand grenades attempted to storm a police station, a power plant and a military fortress before police and loyalist troops drove them into the hills.

But when OAS investigators arrived in the city, neither the police nor loyalist forces would talk to them. They were refused entry into the fortress, could find few bullet holes where the fighting supposedly took place. The investigators found 16 bodies. And they could not really be certain how many were rebels killed in combat. Several bodies were covered with slashes; one had its face pounded to a pulp. A coffin held the body of a four-year-old girl with a bullet hole in her forehead. Since Imbert's troops control the city, the OAS investigators said they were considering a formal protest to Imbert for a violation of human rights.

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