Ortega Calls a Cease-Fire : Presses for Contras to Disband

MANAGUA, Nicaragua —  President Daniel Ortega today ordered a unilateral halt to all offensive military operations and said the U.S.-supported Contra rebels should disband so Nicaragua can peacefully change governments.

Late Tuesday, President-elect Violeta Barrios de Chamorro also told the Honduras-based rebels to lay down their weapons immediately.

“The causes of the civil war in Nicaragua have disappeared. There is no reason for more war,” the leader of the National Opposition Union said in a radio address.

In a statement issued by his press office, Ortega said the unilateral halt to military activity is aimed at encouraging the 10,000 Contras to demobilize quickly and quietly.

Ortega also urged the Honduran government to dismantle Contra base camps near the Nicaraguan border and asked the Bush Administration to end all U.S. aid to them.

In Washington, Secretary of State James A. Baker III told lawmakers today that conditions for the Contras’ safe repatriation were “rapidly being created.”

He acknowledged the bitterness arising from the prolonged guerrilla war but said: “This issue can be resolved, and we think it will be resolved. The war is over in Nicaragua.”

The Contra war against the Sandinistas, who came to power in a July, 1979, revolution, has claimed 30,000 lives. The rebels’ refusal to lay down arms has been an obstacle to regional peace initiatives.

In Honduras today, rebel spokesman Alejandro Acevedo said the Contras had informed Chamorro’s UNO that they hope to meet soon about disbanding, although they would prefer to remain a fighting force to ensure that Ortega steps aside.

“Without us here, there is no one to insist that Ortega step down,” he said. “But under the right conditions, we would demobilize sooner.”

Honduran President Leonardo Callejas this week said the opposition’s victory in democratic elections in Nicaragua means that the Contras should leave promptly.

He acknowledged that Nicaragua is “in a period of political transition” but said, “The insurgent forces of the Nicaraguan counterrevolution should not continue on our national territory.”

The Sandinistas and the Contras had agreed on a cease-fire in early 1988, which was later extended. But the Sandinistas lifted it last Nov. 1, after a spate of Contra attacks.

The war, and the accompanying economic devastation, played a large part in popular discontent and contributed to the Sandinistas’ election defeat.

Five Central American presidents called last August for dismantling the rebels, but the Contras had been able to resist such moves because Washington maintained humanitarian aid until the elections.

The Bush Administration has said it will soon lift its economic sanctions against Nicaragua and grant financial aid to the new government.

Meanwhile, in Havana’s first official comment on the Sandinista defeat, Cuban Vice President Carlos Rafael Rodriguez today said the defeat of the Marxist Sandinista’s “hurt . . . but does not humble” Cuba.