Unlikely biker in El Salvador

SHORTLY before he was appointed OC for the followers of Saint Ignatius in Britain, the correspondent of The Independent in San Salvador, had this to say of Fr Michael Campbell, now resident in Farm Street: "He is British, bearded and tall, an unlikely-looking figure in El Salvador even in normal circumstances but especially so when he is perched on his red Honda scooter, dashing along lonely mountain roads on missions of mercy for orphans and homeless. Fr Campbell-Johnson or Padre Miguel, as he is known here was one of the top Jesuits behind the founding in 1980 of the Jesuit Refuge Service.
For the past two-and-half years. Padre Nfiguel, who speaks five languages, has been based in El Salvador, from where he coordinates all the Jesuit work for refugees in Mexico and Central America. El Salvador, which has by far the worst refugee problem in the region, is where he spends most of his time.
Thousands of Salvadoreans have been orphaned and half a million have fled their homes in this country of five million people where, during third decade, the fighting has been the fiercest in Central America. In seven years of war between left-wing guerillas and El Salvador's USbacked government, three times as many people have been killed an estimated 60,000 as in Nicaragua.
"Our principle is not do for, but be with, the people who've been displaced by the war, to give them the strength to help themselves", says Padre Miguel. The Jesuit Refugee Service provides the personnel volunteer lay workers and nuns, as well as Jesuit priets who live in El Salvador's big refugee camps . . .
Padre Miguel is usually too absorbM it? his work to think about politics but, when pressed, he expresses strong feelings. "The Salvadoreans are a great people and it makes me angry that the United States, through the army, controls this country. It is clear that the government works in the interests of Washington, not of the people. What the people want is peace, but President Duarte can't hold dialogue with the guerillas because the US won't allow him". El Salvador "is a makebelieve independent country and a make-believe democracy."
Padre Miguel can think of only one way to end what he calls the "appalling dilemma" of the Country's poor. "I'll be waiting see what happens in the postReagan era. I can't imagine anything worse than Reagan's policy in Central America, so something else could be better."