Cease Fire

If you're a big fan, you already knew what was coming in the season finale. But it didn't make it any easier -- or less heartbreaking -- to watch. The majority of the Season 3 "Downton" finale, or the "Christmas special" as its called in the U.K., took place in Scotland, where the whole family (minus Branson) visits the Highlands home of the Dowager's niece, Susan, and her husband, Shrimpy. Most of the trip included bagpipes, hunting, more bagpipes and Scottish reel dancing. But more on that later (and more on O'Brien meeting her Scottish lady's maid doppelganger)

The recent news of the cease fire in Syria met with a "ho-hum," skeptical and less-than-enthusiastic reaction ("Shaky cease-fire starts in Syria," April 13). I was stunned. Can't we rejoice for the moment over the historic change in a method based on reason and wise counsel to alleviate a violent situation? We see in Syria's cease-fire the results of a committed dialogue from the U.N. and Arab League. I believe the cease fire of today event holds great hope for mankind. Cassandra S. Naylor, Stevenson

The recent news of the cease fire in Syria met with a "ho-hum," skeptical and less-than-enthusiastic reaction ("Shaky cease-fire starts in Syria," April 13). I was stunned. Can't we rejoice for the moment over the historic change in a method based on reason and wise counsel to alleviate a violent situation? We see in Syria's cease-fire the results of a committed dialogue from the U.N. and Arab League. I believe the cease fire of today event holds great hope for mankind. Cassandra S. Naylor, Stevenson

It's no coincidence that Israeli troops halted their devastating strikes on the Gaza Strip and began withdrawing from the Palestinian enclave the weekend before Barack Obama's inaugural festivities. Politics took precedence over military goals in deference to America's 44th president. But the underlying causes of Israel's three-week-old war against Hamas militants remain. They are at the center of the region's problems and Israel's fight for its future. Helping resolve this decades-old conflict falls now to President Obama.

The Irish Republican Army's cease-fire announced this week should improve the lives of poor people in the Catholic slums of Northern Ireland almost immediately. They will be less afraid to walk out their doors. Their youth will not be immediately suspect. Neighborhood bullies will cease pretending to be courts of law. The British military presence should progressively recede to barracks as the cease-fire sticks.The cease-fire will enable Sinn Fein, the political arm of the movement of which the IRA is the military arm, to play the political role that all constitutional parties do, its influence determined by voters.

Rather than continuing to pursue an elusive military solution in Iraq, the United States should adopt a violence-reduction strategy that encourages cooperation among the country's embattled factions. What Iraq needs is not more U.S. troops, but a new approach that attempts to break the deadly spiral of violence. The U.S. could lead the way by halting offensive operations and initiating a general cease-fire. Given the dismal record of what has been accomplished in nearly four years of combat, it is doubtful that suspending military operations for a few months would make the situation worse or cause irreparable harm.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Hope for peace in Northern Ireland took a giant stride ahead yesterday as Protestant gunmen responded to the 6-week-old cease-fire of the Irish Republican Army by declaring their own cease-fire.The Protestant paramilitary groups pledged to "universally cease all operational hostilities" as of midnight yesterday. The duration of the cease-fire, a communique said, "will be completely dependent" upon how long the IRA cease-fire lasted.A statement was read by a well-known figure among Protestant paramilitaries, Augustus "Gusty" Spence, who was credited with founding the modern-day Ulster Volunteer Force in the 1960s.

MEXICO CITY -- Peace talks between the Salvadoran government and leftist rebels appear headed toward a simple cease-fire agreement rather than a broad solution to a war that has claimed 72,000 lives.According to sources close to the negotiations, the best both sides can hope to gain from their unprecedented 20 days of talks is an agreement on a cease-fire that would permit the rebels to enter the political process under United Nations protection.The rebel aim is to capitalize on mounting right-wing pressure within the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena)

The Irish Republican Army's announced end to violence was given a wary cheer yesterday by Baltimore-area residents of Irish descent."It sounds like they are actually making some progress," said City Councilman Martin O'Malley, a third-generation Irish-American whose family is from Galway on the western Irish coast.The 3rd District Democrat said he was encouraged by the news of the IRA's cease-fire, adding, "There have been truces in the past, but this one seems like it has more to it."Anybody that reads about it must be pretty happy and optimistic that some progress is finally being made.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton has scored a political ten-strike by taking the leading role in brokering a cease-fire in Bosnia. But it is a success accompanied by extraordinary political risk.After almost three years of following a policy on the former Yugoslavia that was perceived as shot through with contradictions and uncertainty, the president has finally asserted his leadership in a way that should dispel many of the doubts about his ability to deal with complex and vexing international issues.

JERUSALEM - After 19 days under Israeli military assault and Egyptian diplomatic pressure, Hamas softened its terms for a cease-fire yesterday as fighting in the Gaza Strip pushed the death toll past 1,000. The militant Palestinian group altered its stance in talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo. It was the first sign of progress toward a deal to end the punishing offensive and halt rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel. Israel announced that it would send an emissary, Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad, to Cairo today to discuss a cease-fire proposal with the Egyptians.

JERUSALEM - The military power of Hamas has been weakened and its political leadership is divided over plans for a possible cease-fire, but an Israeli intelligence official said yesterday that the radical group remains dangerous, with 15,000 fighters, tunnels and a sophisticated arsenal of rockets and anti-tank weapons. The senior official's assessment was delivered in a news briefing on a day when Israeli ground forces and Hamas guerrillas battled fiercely in a southeastern neighborhood of high-rise apartments in Gaza City.

Israel and Hamas ignored a United Nations cease-fire resolution yesterday as the Israeli army attacked 70 targets in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian militants fired a barrage of rockets at southern Israel from the beleaguered seaside enclave. Fighting in Gaza continued for a 14th day with little indication that the international community or an Egyptian-backed peace initiative would bring a quick end to hostilities. Hamas officials said they would not heed a resolution they were not consulted about.

JERUSALEM - Israel yesterday faced a growing confrontation with aid groups alarmed by the toll its offensive against Hamas is taking on civilians, while the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution early today calling for an immediate and durable Gaza cease-fire. Israel and Hamas are not party to the agreement - which was passed by a vote of 14-0 with the U.S. abstaining - and it will be up to them to stop their military activities. But the resolution, which followed three days of intense negotiations between ministers from key Arab nations and Western powers, would allow for the opening of border crossings to Gaza.

JERUSALEM - Israel and Hamas scaled back their fighting in the Gaza Strip yesterday and considered a cease-fire proposal from Egypt and France, even as Israeli leaders weighed a deeper assault into the Palestinian militant group's urban strongholds. Fighting on the 12th day of the air, land and sea offensive all but halted for three hours during a unilateral Israeli pause. Israeli officials said they wanted to give diplomacy a chance, but they indicated that a decision to end or intensify the operation, aimed at halting rocket fire into Israel, could come by week's end. "From Israel's perspective, there's no contradiction between pursuing the military targets in Gaza and working in parallel on the diplomatic track," said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev.

The confrontation between Israel and Hamas on the Gaza Strip can come to no good end. Friends of both Israel and the Palestinian people should urge an early truce before the bloody violence escalates further with tragic consequences. As the aerial assault in Gaza entered its third day, it has become clear that the Israelis are determined not to stop until Hamas ends its rain of rockets that has paralyzed life in some southern Israeli towns in recent days. But with more than 300 Palestinians, including at least 50 civilians, already killed by Israeli bombs, and a ground assault increasingly likely, there has been widespread international condemnation of the scale of the attacks and pleas to both sides for at least a temporary halt in the fighting.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- The road to peace in Bosnia is littered with the shattered reputations of international figures. But Jimmy Carter, the former U.S. president, has accomplished more in his four days of negotiations with Serbs and Muslims than his predecessors managed after laboring month after month.But not until the end of this week will Mr. Carter -- or the beleaguered Muslims -- know whether his efforts actually quiet the Balkan war.The Bosnian Serbs, led by Radovan Karadzic, and the Bosnian Muslims agreed to a four-month cease-fire, to begin tomorrow.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- A U.S.-brokered cease-fire was expected to take effect Tuesday even though it appeared unlikely that a condition for the truce -- the full restoration of utilities to Sarajevo -- would be met on time, Bosnian and United Nations officials said yesterday.Under the cease-fire agreement, the 60-day truce is to begin at one minute past midnight Tuesday (7:01 p.m. Eastern time), providing that full gas and electrical service is restored in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, and that two roads are opened connecting Sarajevo to the besieged Muslim enclave of Gorazde.

WASHINGTON - White-hot public anger over the war in Iraq, coming to a boil 18 months ago, initially helped propel Barack Obama toward the White House. But as much of the ugly violence and heavy casualties have faded, so have many of the demands to "Bring the Troops Home Now!" Now what? According to Obama's own plans, and the assessments of senior officers and others, the White House will be engaged in a long process of carefully sequenced troop withdrawals, delicate management to keep today's cease-fires in Iraq in place, and maintaining some residual U.S. security presence at least through the next four years.

GOMA, Congo - An uneasy calm returned to this battered Congolese city yesterday as a tenuous cease-fire halted clashes and residents struggled to resume their regular lives. Many of the thousands of panicked people who fled regional displacement camps a day earlier and stormed into Goma, a city in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, began traveling back to nearby camps. In contrast to Wednesday's stampede, when people feared rebels were in hot pursuit, the return trip was a somber procession, with weary people of all ages carrying mattresses, blankets and wood kindling toward an uncertain future.