CASA Protests Killing Of Rights Group Leader

Members of the Central America Solidarity Association (CASA) called on the United States government yesterday to cut off aid to the government of El Salvador, which they charged with the assassination of a human rights group director earlier this week.

Herbert Ernesto Anaya Sanabria, the 32-year-old coordinator of the non-governmental Human Rights Commission of El Salvador (CDH), was killed by two armed men in civilian clothes as he left his house on Monday to bring two of his five children to school. No group has claimed responsibility for the murder.

CASA members said at a press conference yesterday that they support CDH members' claim that military-linked death squads killed Anaya, although government officials have said that the killing was an "irrational act."

"Our response to the assasination of HerbertAnaya must be to demand an impartial,international investigation of his death, and thecomplete cessation of U.S. assistance to thegovenment and military responsible for this brutalact," said Daniel Katz, assistant director of theNational Immigration Project of the NationalLawyers' Guild.

Katz, Emily Yozell, an immigration attorney,and John J. Tobin, adminstrative director ofHarvard's Human Rights Program spoke at the pressconference. They said they had met Anaya in ElSalvador during the past year.

The CDH, founded in 1978, is one of fourindependent organizations that document humanrights violations and file petitions for therelease of prisoners, including those by thegovernment. Of these four, Tobin said the CDH isthe only group that criticizes the governmentpublicly. The group publishes a biannual book oftestimony about violations, and informs the mediaabout government violations.

All of the founding members of the CDH havebeen killed, disappeared, or forced to exile since1978. Anaya himself was arrested in May 1986,interrogated for 15 days, and imprisoned for ninemonths in La Mariona prison for men.

"Because of its efforts to expose human rightsviolations, and to point out that theresponsibility for them lies with the right wingdeath squads, the military, and the Salvadorangovernment, the CDH has constantly been a victimof the oppressive apparatus its work exposes,"Katz said.

Political prisoners in La Mariona protested thedeath of Anaya on Monday, shouting throughmegaphones to tell other prisoners what hadhappened. Yozell said yesterday that Anayaorganized an office of the CDH in the prisonduring his time there.

Although Anaya and two or three other membersof the CDH were arrested in 1986, the CDHcontinued to operate. Tobin said that Anaya toldhim the offices never closed, and Tobin said hewas sure that the office would not close afterAnaya's death.

"This will not intimidate [the CDH's] work,"Yozell said. "They will redouble their efforts todenounce the violations of the Duarte regime."

"People tend to forget what's going on in ElSalvador--particularly if they haven't beenthere--because it's not in the news," said HilaryL. Richard, a third-year law student who spent thesummer doing research in El Salvador with the helpof Anaya and his wife.

"I hope Herbert's death brings the issue ofever-present repression into the news, and showspeople that the situation hasn't improved to theextent that we've been led to believe," she said.

Yozell said she hoped that there would now beincreased efforts to protect other members of theCDH, such as Reynaldo Blanco, one of the bestknown of the CDH officials. The organizationconceals the names of many of its volunteers fortheir protection. The efforts of internationalhuman rights groups to protest the death of Anayawill to some extent protect Blanco, because thegovernment will know that they are being watched,she said