And this news from San Salvador: A Jesuit-run university formally asked prosecutors yesterday to reinvestigate the murders of six priests and two women in 1989, alleging that a former president and other top officials were negligent in the deaths. The complaint by the Universidad Centroamericana said President Alfredo Christiani and former Defense Minister Rafael Humberto Larios shared guilt, because they could have prevented the crime. Father Jose Maria Tojeira told a news conference that the school is urging that officials bring charges against the men in connection with the slayings, amongst the most notorious atrocities in the country’s twelve-year civil war. The school’s complaint did accuse five former army generals of direct responsibility for the murders. Aides at Christiani’s office said the former president, who left office in ‘94, had no comment.

The six priests who worked at the university and a housekeeper and her daughter were rousted from their beds and shot by soldiers on November 16, 1989. A colonel, two lieutenants, a second lieutenant, and five other soldiers were accused of the slayings, but only two were convicted. They were freed in 1992 due to an amnesty law passed to accompany a peace treaty.