Letter: A crime in Chechnya

Sir: Once again a spectre is haunting Europe. This time it is the spectre of the Chechen people. A crime is about to be committed at Grozny. Under the pretext of responding to cross-border aggression by Islamic militants Russian militarism has gone on to occupy most of Chechnya and in true nineteenth-century fashion the Russian bear is now poised to starve Grozny or raze it to the ground along with its population.

It may be too late for good men and women to prevent Russia vastly exceeding the pretext for its intervention in Chechnya, but there may still be time to prevent it repeating the criminal Serb tactics at Vukovar, Sarajevo or Pristina, and to call on our governments to put on economic pressure to stay the hand of Russian militarism over Grozny.

If those in Russia who have wanted this war get away with this crime with impunity then this will become the way it deals with issues in the future.

J P MURPHY

Birmingham