GUATEMALAN SIGNING ENDS 36-YEAR WAR.

Byline: Anita Snow Associated Press 

War-weary guerrilla and government leaders on Sunday signed an accord ending 36 years of civil conflict, vowing to tackle the poverty, repression and discrimination that sparked the fighting.

The solemn ceremony, observed by some 1,200 foreign dignitaries and special guests inside the National Palace, brought Central America's last and longest civil war to an official close.

Heads of state - including President Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and presidents from all of Central America's nations - applauded as each of the four top rebel leaders and representatives of the government signed the agreement reached after six years of negotiations brokered by the United Nations.

Rebel commanders Rolando Moran, Pablo Monsanto, Carlos Gonzalez and Jorge Rosal returned home Saturday from exile in Mexico City, where they and Guatemalan government officials had negotiated the peace accords.

``Today the combatants' arms are silenced,'' rebel commander Rolando Moran declared. ``The war ends and Guatemala is the only victor.''

Moran called the signing the ``most important date in the history of our people in the last 50 years.''

However, some Guatemalans and others closely linked to events said all sides would have to struggle to guard against renewed hostilities.

President Alvaro Arzu, who took office in January pledging to end the conflict within a year, called on Guatemalans to forgive one another and heal the wounds of war.

``We cannot remain prisoners of the past,'' Alvaro said. ``There will not, there cannot be a peace process if there is not an attitude of sincere pardon.

``But pardon does not signify forgetting. We cannot forget, and we should not forget.''

In one of his last acts before his term ends New Year's Day, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali signed the pact and lauded both sides for having the political will to ``leave confrontation behind and turn their energies to peace development and reconciliation.''

Rebel leaders wearing dark suits shook hands and each hugged government negotiator Gustavo Porras, with whom they had wrangled over fine points for so many years in Mexico City hotels.

``Three decades of internal conflict has ended,'' Porras said. ``The future we depend on, now depends on us . . . The task is huge.''

Earlier, many remembered the tens of thousands who died - determined that past horrors not be forgotten amid the celebrations surrounding the signing of a final peace accord.

Ten thousand Indians poured into the capital's festive central square Sunday as a roving marimba band played. Two women in brightly embroidered blouses and woven skirts led the procession, carrying huge golden candles wrapped in fresh green leaves and blue and pink plastic flowers.

Peasant men in straw cowboy hats and children carried white flags of peace or blue flags that said ``URNG,'' the initials for the rebel National Revolutionary Guatemalan Unity.

``Today we offer homage to all the anonymous martyrs of the struggle,'' shouted a man with a megaphone. ``Long live the Guatemalan martyrs!''

People threw red carnations on the tomb of President Jacobo Arbenz, elected democratically but overthrown in a CIA-backed coup in 1954 when his plans for land reform riled the U.S.-based United Fruit Co. - triggering the civil war.

``The idea is to remember what happened so that we never, never forget,'' said Eugenio Us, who visited the cemetery with his wife Maria Chan Xabac.

They had fled their village in 1981 after soldiers killed their son and all their neighbors and burned their homes to the ground - part of the army's scorched-earth campaign to wipe out suspected rebel sympathizers.

At least 140,000 people died - most of them civilians of Guatemala's Indian

majority - and another 100,000 fled the country in Central America's last and longest civil war.

Many, including U.N. mediator Jean Arnault, warn the road to peace is only beginning. A difficult rebuilding lays ahead for a country long divided by war, its justice system, institutions and infrastructure deeply eroded.

``I don't think we'll ever see a resumption of fighting. But a lot of money and the support of the international community will be necessary to ensure the accords are successful,'' he said.

Some remained skeptical about whether peace will truly blossom, or that the government can meet the promises made in the accords.

``There is a lot of hope that foreign organizations will help us,'' said Ramon Roldan, a 60-year-old worker from the southern province of Esquipulas. ``We want it to be true because we have seen so much fear in the past.''

Rebels and government officials signed the last in a series of peace accords in the patio of the National Palace before some 1,200 other foreign dignitaries and special guests.

``With the signing of peace, the nations of this hemisphere jubilantly welcome Guatemala with open arms to our democratic family in peace,'' Thomas McLarty, representing President Clinton, said before the signing.

In Washington, Clinton offered his congratulations to Arzu and the people of Guatemala, White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said in a statement.

He called the accord ``a credit to the leadership of President Arzu and an example of the vital role that the United Nations can play,'' and expressed appreciation to Mexico for its role as host of the peace talks, McCurry said.

Sunday's signing triggers earlier agreements to reform agriculture, the economy and election laws, protect human rights, establish a truth commission to investigate war crimes, resettle refugees, recognize Indian rights, demobilize rebels, and determine the future of the military.

Guatemala's congress also enacted an amnesty law that forgives many crimes committed by both sides, but excludes torture, genocide and disappearances. Human rights advocates say vagueness in the law's language could foil prosecution of government agents accused of atrocities.

The celebrations began late Saturday, when four top rebel leaders returned from exile to a city they once hoped to conquer.

``This fiesta should be extended to all corners, not only in Guatemala but in all of Latin America, carrying the message that a political solution can be found to conflict,'' declared Guatemalan Indian activist Rigoberta Menchu, winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) Rigoberta Menchu, the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner, marches in Guatemala City on Sunday with thousands of countrymen in memory of those who died in the nation's 36-year-long civil war.

(2) Thousands fill the main plaza in Guatemala City on Sunday to celebrate the signing of the peace accord.

Associated Press