Signing of Accord Ends 35-Year Civil War in Guatemala

Guatemalans formally ended Latin America’s longest civil war Sunday at a signing ceremony attended by the region’s political and religious leaders.

The peace agreement, after 35 years of fighting, was signed by President Alvaro Arzu and four guerrilla commanders at the National Palace in the heart of this sprawling city. The rebel commanders, representing four leftist insurgent groups, wore business suits with Guatemalan flags on their lapels.

The signing was witnessed by eight Latin American presidents and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.

“Today, the armed conflict ends and the people of Guatemala are the victors,” Commander Ricardo Ramirez de Leon, whose nom de guerre was Rolando Moran, said to the cheers of the crowd that filled the palace’s plaza, watching the ceremony on giant television screens.

Each rebel commander hugged head government negotiator Gustavo Porras, with whom they wrangled over fine points during years of negotiations.

When Arzu strode out to the plaza to announce the signing, he was booed by the crowd, which chanted “U-R-N-G,” the Spanish initials of the rebel coalition. The multitude ignored his request for a moment of silence in memory of the war’s victims.

Earlier, marimba bands had welcomed delegations at the airport, and the atmosphere was festive despite tight security at the major hotels where foreign dignitaries and guerrilla commanders were staying.

The far-reaching agreement, which will be implemented over four years, seeks to end the inequality and injustice that led to the civil war. The fighting left more than 140,000 people dead or missing and created millions of refugees in Central America’s most populous nation.

Under the pact, the government recognizes the rights of Indians, who make up about 60% of the population; agrees to provide more social services and education, especially for the half of Guatemalans who are illiterate; and pledges to reduce the number of soldiers and the defense budget by one-third.

These are all significant achievements in this nation of 10 million with a history of discrimination and military dictatorship.

“We have put in place bars and locks,” rebel Commander Jorge Rosal said at a ceremony early Sunday afternoon that set intermediate goals and dates for complying with each of the overall agreement’s half a dozen accords. “We will make sure that the [agreement] is complied with.”

*

Some observers, however, worry that the agreement has serious shortcomings. Even as the celebrations began, Guatemalan leaders and U.N. representatives who mediated the peace talks denied charges from human rights groups that the agreement’s amnesty provision will allow abuses by the army and guerrillas to go unpunished.

During the most intense fighting, in the 1970s and 1980s, Guatemalan dictators pursued a military victory against the guerrillas through a scorched-earth policy that wiped out whole villages. Often, the insurgents responded with equal brutality.

“Judicial authorities will have the grave responsibility of assuring that the purpose of the [amnesty] law is fulfilled and that no one is absolved of responsibility for” crimes, according to a U.N. statement.

The criticism has angered Arzu, who during a Saturday news conference blasted rights activists and the local media for their reporting on the amnesty.

The 50-year-old Arzu is credited with getting stalled negotiations back on track and--less than a year after taking office--wrapping up the years-long peace process.

“This is an exercise in forgiving without forgetting,” he said during the signing ceremony Sunday. “Any citizen can seek justice by demonstrating that the harm he suffered was not directly related to the armed conflict.”

Arzu’s government is credited with showing forbearance that allowed peace to be reached despite the October kidnapping of a wealthy octogenarian by a rebel faction--an incident that nearly derailed the negotiations.

One problem in implementing the agreement may come from its reliance on United Nations oversight. The U.N. mission here, which currently monitors the agreement’s human rights provisions--the first accord was signed and immediately implemented two years ago--is supposed to be expanded to monitor all aspects of the peace.

China, however, has threatened to use its veto power to prevent the U.N. mission from continuing after its current mandate ends Tuesday. China objects to Guatemala’s close relationship with Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province.

U.N. supervision is considered especially crucial in the first few months of the peace, when guerrillas will be turning in their arms and trying to reenter civilian life after a war that has lasted longer than most Guatemalans can remember.