Days of Joy, Pain and Hope

Finally, in a period of missteps and accidental NATO attacks in Yugoslavia and confusion on Capitol Hill over whether the House supports or opposes the air war, there is good news: the release Sunday of the three American prisoners of war. The sight of the smiling faces of Army Staff Sgt. Andrew Ramirez, 24, of Baldwin Park, Spc. Steven Gonzales, 21, of Huntsville, Texas, and Staff Sgt. Christopher J. Stone, 25, of Smith’s Creek, Mich., provided a temporary respite from the hard decisions that lie ahead and that, we hope, will set the stage for further diplomatic progress.

Full credit in securing the release of the three soldiers should go unbegrudgingly to the Rev. Jesse Jackson and a private delegation of religious leaders, including Los Angeles’ Rabbi Steven Bennett Jacobs and Dr. Nazir Uddin Khaja of the American Muslim Council.

The religious leaders had been publicly urged not to go to Belgrade by the Clinton administration and had been warned that the mission was dangerous and ill-timed. No one can know the cynical reasoning that might well have motivated President Slobodan Milosevic to release the soldiers. But the point is that Jackson delivered, winning the release of the prisoners without apparent conditions.

For the families of the soldiers, seized on the Macedonian border March 31, the nightmare is over. Relatives of Ramirez, Gonzales and Stone are their way to Germany to be reunited with their sons, husbands and brothers.

For the Kosovars, however, the future does not look so bright. “This gesture on his [Milosevic’s] part cannot overcome the stench of evil and death on the killing fields of Kosovo,” Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said Sunday. The White House already has rebuffed Jackson’s call for direct talks between Clinton and Milosevic, and we agree that such a meeting is at best premature. The air bombing campaign in Yugoslavia is a NATO operation. Beyond that, Milosevic first would have to lay the groundwork necessary for success. In short, that means the end of Milosevic’s pogrom in Kosovo, the safe return of the refugees and some form of autonomy for the Kosovars that is diplomatically secured.

Today we celebrate the release of U.S. soldiers from captivity. The diplomatic avenues toward peace appear to be opening up, through the increased interest of the Russians and others. Americans must not forget, however, that diplomacy was tried and failed for many months in the absence of a military campaign. In the presence of a military campaign, the diplomatic approach might finally have been given the incentive it needed.