Forgive and forget in El Salvador

El Salvador's Legislative Assembly on Saturday approved an amnesty for government and former rebel troops accused of human rights abuses in the country's nearly 12-year-old civil war, AFP reports from San Salvador. Opposition members walked out of the assembly in protest.

President Alfredo Cristiani had requested the amnesty as a step towards national reconciliation after an independent report accusing the military of 85 per cent of civil war human rights abuses.