Salvador Outlines Plan to End War : Central America: But Marxist rebels, offered few of the changes or rights guarantees they seek, belittled the offer.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — El Salvador’s new government outlined a plan Monday to end nearly 10 years of guerrilla war but offered Marxist rebels few of the political changes or human rights guarantees they seek in return for laying down their weapons.

In its first peace proposal since taking office June 1, the right-wing government of President Alfredo Cristiani called for a cessation of hostilities within two days and the return of the guerrillas to civilian life by Jan. 15 under international supervision.

The proposal, made here in peace talks with the guerrillas, addressed two rebel demands. It offered a multi-party “review” of electoral laws and measures to “perfect” the justice system. The rebels want a new Supreme Court, a new attorney general and early legislative elections, before their scheduled March 1991 date.

Guerrilla leaders quickly belittled the plan, saying it ignored entirely their demands for investigations of right-wing death squad murders, a purge of anti-democratic elements from the armed forces and specific steps to punish military officers who abuse human rights. It also rejected any negotiations over the size of a peacetime army.

The government offered instead to set up a joint commission with the rebels to oversee the disarmament process and “protect the life and the physical and moral integrity” of former rebels.

In addition, the proposed accord would be supervised by delegates of the United Nations, Organization of American States and the Roman Catholic Church.

“This is a serious, responsible proposal that seeks a global solution to the conflict,” said Oscar Alfredo Santamaria, the Salvadoran justice minister, during an evening break on the first of two scheduled days of talks. “It deserves a serious response.”

Minutes later, the chief rebel negotiator, Joaquin Villalobos, faced reporters and branded the proposal “absurd, illogical and inflexible.”

“It is a plan that asks us to make an unconditional surrender and accept the country as it is,” he said.

However, talks on the proposal, and a rebel peace plan made last month, resumed late Monday evening. Rebel negotiators said it was expected that the two sides’ opening positions would be far apart and expressed guarded hope for closing the gap.

The Cristiani government and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front met for the first time Sept. 13-15 in Mexico City and agreed to try to end the fighting “by political means in the shortest time possible” through monthly negotiations.

This first round of substantive talks at the suburban monastery of the Roman Catholic Clarist Sisters. was mediated by Catholic leaders from El Salvador and witnessed by U.N. and OAS representatives.

In a sign of the pressure on both sides to end the war, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez met separately with each, then challenged them publicly to “bury the past.”

“Seven million Salvadorans have turned their eyes toward you, with optimism and faith,” said the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize winner. “You do not want to leave here as accomplices of more war.”

The conflict has left at least 70,000 dead, most of them civilians killed by right-wing death squads.

With that in mind, the rebels have made prosecution of such violations the key condition for disarming. Their plan calls for a cease-fire by Nov. 15 in return for reforming the judiciary and the army to end rights abuses. The rebels would then disarm by Jan. 15 and turn into a political party.

The government proposal calls for agreements on undefined “measures to strengthen respect for human rights.”

“The impunity of those who kill and torture has to end,” said Villalobos.

The onset of talks appears to have sharpened the conflict, adding to a climate of distrust. More than 70 combatants on both sides have been killed since the rebels ended an 11-day unilateral truce Sept. 23, after the government began arresting and beating leftist union leaders and other rebel supporters.

Since taking office June 1, Cristiani has surprised his critics just by his willingness to talk. But opposition in the military and his right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance appears has given the rebels the edge in a propaganda war.

“We all want peace to come to our country right now,” Cristiani said Sunday in a speech televised in El Salvador. “But 10 years of fratricidal conflict is difficult to solve. We do not want people to get frustrated if, perhaps, the talks do not move forward at the accelerated pace that the people demand.”