Ramsey Clark Meets With American Pacifist Jailed in Salvador

SAN SALVADOR —  Former U.S. Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark met Saturday with a jailed American pacifist and said she will plead not guilty to Salvadoran government charges of illegal possession of a guerrilla arms cache.

“I believe she is innocent,” Clark said after a meeting lasting almost three hours at National Police headquarters with Jennifer Jean Casolo, who has been held there since a police raid on her rented house in the capital a week ago.

Police said they dug up more than 20,000 rounds of ammunition plus grenades and explosives from her back patio. A police official told U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, a Washington state Democrat who visited the prisoner Monday, that Casolo had been accused by a captured guerrilla of helping him bury the weapons.

After visiting Casolo and inspecting the house and yard, Clark said in an interview: “I don’t see any evidence that she had any knowledge of any weapons present on her premise--if there were any present.”

He said he is “very skeptical . . . not at all convinced” that weapons were buried there in the first place.

Casolo works here for Christian Education Seminars in El Salvador, a Texas-based religious group that organizes visits in the country in the hope of encouraging changes in U.S. policy toward Central America. She has escorted hundreds of church workers, congressional aides and American VIPs on tours.

By all accounts, the 28-year-old native of Thomaston, Conn., kept her opinions to herself and tried to present a balanced view of the Salvadoran conflict to her guests. In that role, however, she became a central figure in a church movement that members of the Salvadoran army and ruling party have long suspected of aiding rebels.

The Rev. Dan Long, a Lutheran pastor who is chairman of Christian Education Seminars’ board, expressed concern that Casolo is being “used as a pawn” in a government campaign to discredit religious groups.

Long and the Rev. Donovan Cook, pastor of the University Baptist Church in Seattle, are here trying to see Casolo. The police have declined so far to allow any visitors besides Clark and the congressman.

Salvadoran officials gave conflicting accounts last week on the extent of their suspicions of Casolo and what they intended to do with her.

Ricardo Valdivieso, the undersecretary of foreign affairs, said Friday that Casolo was “a naive person who has been used” by the rebels and that “unfortunately she was found in the house at the time” the weapons were dug up.

The army chief of staff, Col. Rene Emilio Ponce, has said it is likely Casolo will be given a quick hearing and expelled from the country.

But President Alfredo Cristiani and his attorney general said the government will press for a full-blown trial on the weapons possession charge, which carries a 10-year prison sentence upon conviction.

“If there is enough proof, and apparently in this case there is, then a judicial process will be started,” Cristiani told reporters.

Clark, who was retained by Casolo’s family and organization as a legal adviser, said he assumes Casolo will go to trial. Because he cannot legally defend her in court here, he is seeking a Salvadoran attorney.

He said he was told that Casolo is scheduled to be given the equivalent of an arraignment Monday before a military court judge. The judge would then have 72 hours to determine whether the police evidence merits a trial.

If that happens, Clark said he will move to release her on bail and delay a trial until the fighting, which escalated with an urban guerrilla offensive last month, subsides.

“My argument is that you cannot get a fair trial because emotions are too high,” he said. “Here you’ve got a war going on. . . . We would prefer to wait until a quieter time. But if she remains in custody, we don’t like custody. That would be a tough choice.”

Clark said that Casolo, who is held in a room with two other women prisoners, “seemed very strong and perfectly coherent. She said she could feel the prayers of others. . . .” He also said she “might find deportation very unjust and very hard” because of her commitment to the Salvadoran people.