Letter: Insult to Russia

Alan Murray
Sunday 13 June 1999 23:02 BST
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Sir: I am increasingly angry with people who write to newspapers attacking Nato's Kosovo campaign on the grounds that Serbia was not really committing genocide against the Kosovar Albanians (letter, 11 June). These people are counting angels on the head of a pin.

Perhaps the disappearance of tens of thousands of young men and the systematic rape of hundreds of young women, the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of other citizens, regardless of age and infirmity, and the expropriation (often destruction) of their homes and property do not meet the absolutist definition of genocide. Evidently, in the eyes of these armchair strategists, this makes it all OK. Well, it is not OK.

The conspiracy theorists who impute imperialistic motives to Nato must put up or shut up. Let us hear them demonstrate how this action has served the national interests of any Nato member. It has damaged relationships between Russia and the United States and has caused territorial problems for, among others, Greece and Italy. It has cost the UK, and all the other participants, a lot of money that they would rather have spent on other things. It cost Tony Blair a lot of political capital with Bill Clinton and others.

That our leaders were prepared to take such risks for the greater good should be commended.

ALAN MURRAY

Dorking, Surrey

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