Letter: Kosovo rebels

Sir: Emma Daly writes of "separatist rebels" in Kosovo ("Serbs leave Kosovo on deadline", 27 October). That the KLA is in fact a powerfully- backed terrorist group, supported by forces in Iran, Albania, Turkey and others is omitted.

The KLA receives funding from fanatical pro-independence groups all over the world. Many of these groups have supplied mercenaries and funds for arms. Fund-raising involves drug smuggling and other criminal activities.

The media has portrayed the KLA as freedom fighters and its illegal terrorist activities as the "struggle for liberation".

Their forces include many fanatical Muslim groups formerly operating in Bosnia. When will the West recognise that the KLA is the thin end of a wedge that represents neither ethnic Albanian peasants nor oppressed Muslim communities?

HUGH W GLEAVES

London N10