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REPRESSION, FREEDOM, AND MINIMAL GEOGRAPHY: Human Rights, Humanitarian Law, and Canadian Involvement in El Salvador, 1977 - 1984 by Kari Mariska Pries A thesis submitted to the Department of Geography In conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada September, 2007 Copyright ©Kari Mariska Pries, 2007 In its minimal geography fit the most contradictory realities Of death and joy, of repression and freedom Pedro Casaldáliga El Vuelo del Quetzal (1988) ii Abstract This thesis addresses the potential for third parties to apply or make use of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law to protect civilians caught in the midst of civil war. A case study is presented of El Salvador, where conflict in the 1970s and 1980s took the lives of an estimated 75,000 people and caused immense human suffering. Of particular interest is how organizations under the aegis of the Salvadoran Catholic Church provided data on human rights violations, gathered with credible precision, to the international community. The Canadian public responded to the situation in El Salvador in a markedly different way than the Canadian government, whose pronouncements were at first ill-informed and uncritically pro- American. The question thus arises: do counter-consensus or public-pressure groups exert any influence over a state’s foreign policy and, if so, does this phenomenon contribute to conflict resolution? While there is disagreement over the actual success that public groups and interested parties have over government decision-making, this thesis demonstrates that, in fact, the counter- consensus in Canada did have a discernable impact on foreign policy during the Salvadoran conflict. These actions have potential contributions to make to conflict resolution and the search for a negotiated end to civil strife, which in the case of El Salvador was generated in the first place not by an alleged international communist conspiracy but by crippling geographies of inequality. iii Table of Contents Abstract...........................................................................................................................................iii Table of Contents............................................................................................................................iv List of Figures.................................................................................................................................vi List of Acronyms and Institutional Terms .....................................................................................vii Preface: One of the Dead Who Never Die but Rise Again in the Salvadoran People….........ix Chapter 1 : Introduction: Geography, War, and Conflict Resolution in El Salvador ............1 Spaces of Terror, Networks of Solidarity ....................................................................................4 Methodological Procedures .........................................................................................................8 Project Parameters .....................................................................................................................12 Chapter 2 : ‘This is El Salvador’: Origins and Development of Conflict (1970-1985) and the Beginning of Canadian Involvement..........................................................................................14 Canada’s Relations with El Salvador, 1977 – 1984...................................................................20 Visibility as a Voice...................................................................................................................22 Chapter 3 : International Humanitarian Law and its Applicability to Armed Conflicts of a Non-International Nature ...........................................................................................................26 Defining International Humanitarian Law (IHL).......................................................................28 Fundamental Principles of Humanitarian Law ..........................................................................31 International vs. Non-International Armed Conflicts and Additional Protocol II ....................33 Additional Protocol II: Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflict ......................................................................................................................................40 International Human Rights Law (IHRL) and International Humanitarian Law.......................43 The Importance of IHL and IHRL in Application: The Case of El Salvador ............................47 Chapter 4 : The Salvadoran Catholic Church as Human Rights Observer, 1970 - 1981......55 Legal Structure Protecting Human Rights to 1980 ....................................................................59 Working for Human Rights, Empowerment, and Public Witness .............................................61 Comunidades Eclesiales de Base: Building Human Dignity and Self-Worth ...........................66 iv Speaking Out as Public Witness: Archbishop Romero and Church Media ...............................71 Broadcasting Witness of Human Rights ....................................................................................75 Records and Data of Violations: Socorro Jurídico Cristiano and Tutela Legal........................79 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................83 Chapter 5 : Human Rights Organizations, Pressure Groups, and Third-party States: Canada’s Experience with Human Rights Violations and Civil War in El Salvador............86 Legal Basis for Third-State Involvement in an Internal Conflict ............................................100 Canadian Involvement in El Salvador during La Matanza, 1932............................................103 Canadian Government Perceptions of Rising Conflict in El Salvador, 1978 -1979............108 Impact of Public Opinion on Canadian Foreign Policy ...........................................................114 Canadian Involvement in El Salvador, 1980 – 1984 ...............................................................128 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................134 Chapter 6 : Conclusion - IHL, Violation Records, and Third Parties in the Peace Negotiation Process....................................................................................................................137 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................................144 Archival Documents and Reports ............................................................................................144 Books and Book Chapters........................................................................................................146 Conference Presentations and Papers ......................................................................................152 Journal Articles and Occasional Papers...................................................................................153 Newspaper Articles..................................................................................................................162 Unpublished Theses.................................................................................................................165 Appendix A : The Development of IHL Prior to Codification...............................................166 IHL in Western Tradition and Faith.........................................................................................167 Father of International Law: Development of a Natural Jurisprudence in Europe ..................169 Appendix B : Relevant Treaties Comprising IHL to 1991 .....................................................171 Appendix C : Conditions for the Application of Common Article 3.....................................172 Appendix D : Summary of the Applicability of IHL and IHRL............................................173 Appendix E : Significant Periods of the Salvadoran Catholic Church for Human Rights Mobilization................................................................................................................................174 Appendix F : Counter-Consensus Application of Mass Media..............................................175 v List of Figures Figure 1: Map of El Salvador, Showing Political Divisions by Department (Montgomery 1995)..ii Figure 2: Map of El Salvador - Areas of Control in Civil War......................................................20 Figure 3: Conflict Classification by Type and Applicable Law ....................................................34 Figure 4: Drawing by Refugee Child.............................................................................................54 Figure 5 : Archbishop Oscar Romero Transmitting His Homily by Phone (March 1980)............77 Counter-Consensus in Action: The Globe and Mail, Friday, 30 March, 1984, 10 ......................175 vi List of Acronyms and Institutional Terms ARENA Alianza Republicana Nacional - The National Republican Alliance in El Salvador. A right-wing party, founded in 1981 by ex-major Roberto D’Aubuisson. APII II Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1948 BPR Bloque Popular Revolucionario – Popular Revolutionary Block (coalition of