Step Forward

Justice moves slowly

The investigation had dragged on for almost two years, straining relations between the U.S. and El Salvador and attracting reproachful editorials worldwide. Finally, a sign of progress emerged last week. Salvadoran Judge Bernardo Rauda Murcia ruled that five former National Guardsmen accused of murdering four American churchwomen in 1980 must stand trial.

The case has been controversial from the day three nuns and a Roman Catholic lay worker were found sexually abused, shot, and buried in a shallow grave about 30 miles southeast of San Salvador. After months of stonewalling by Salvadoran authorities, the five suspects were finally taken into custody in May 1981, but the wheels of justice creaked slowly and Washington grew increasingly impatient. Last year Congress passed legislation requiring the Administration to justify its requests for military and economic aid to El Salvador by certifying every six months that the country is improving its human rights record. In July, Congress specifically asked the Administration to make progress in the inquiry a condition for continued aid.

The State Department is "obviously pleased" that the accused finally are being brought to trial. Not so pleased are the families of the murdered Americans, who contend that El Salvador is covering up the involvement of superior officers in the killings. Lawyers for the relatives informed the State Department last week that they would not participate in the trial. But U.S. officials insist that there simply is no evidence that high-ranking Guardsmen were involved. Says a U.S. diplomat in El Salvador: "The sad thing is that these families are being used by people not interested in justice but in political crusades, like cutting off all aid to El Salvador."

During a visit to Washington last week, Fidel Chavez Mena, El Salvador's Foreign Minister, expressed hope that the case will be resolved by late January, when the Administration must once again certify that the embattled country remains eligible for American aid. U.S. embassy officials in San Salvador, however, are not optimistic that the trial will persuade Congress that El Salvador has bettered its human rights record. Members of Congress have their eye on another case in which justice has proved less than speedy: accusations that high-ranking army officers ordered the murder of two U.S. land-reform experts in 1981. If no progress is made in that case by late January, the Reagan Administration may discover that the battle over El Salvador is taking place not only on that country's soil but on Capitol Hill as well.

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