Salvador, Why Celebrate Peace Agreements?
Social organizations in El Salvador object to the January 16 celebration of the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Peace Accords, between the government and the FMLN, and demand the government report about those who disappeared during the conflict.

The abolition of the Amnesty Law and investigation of serious crimes are also demands made to the Antonio Saca administration, confirmed Guadalupe Mejia, chair of CODEFAM, the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared People.

An extensive program of reforms should have been established to guarantee peaceful coexistence, and not reducing everything to simply laying down of weapons, she asserted.

Another CODEFAM member, Ana Adela Cisneros, assured the Amnesty Law consolidated impunity and permitted all kinds of humiliations against civilians.

Carolina Constanza, of the Defense of Human Rights Center, agreed with these opinions, as did representatives of several other organizations gathered in San Salvador.

They talk about celebrations, but first we should know the truth of what happened, then bring the violators to justice, and finally make reparation to the victims and their families, she said.

A preliminary investigation estimated that some 8,600 people disappeared during the 12 years of armed conflict that left more than 75,000 dead in this Central American country.