Letter: Laying down the law in Kosovo

Sir: Those who claim so confidently that international law has been broken by the Nato attack on Yugoslavia are wrong. They ignore the Genocide Convention.

Every signatory is bound by it to intervene to stop genocide quite apart from any UN Resolution. For this reason the Conservative Government turned a blind eye to overwhelming evidence and always refused to speak of genocide in regard to Bosnia.

The present government has recognised that what is happening in Kosovo is nothing less than genocide and that it began well before the monitors were withdrawn. Intervention is, therefore, not illegal but mandatory.

There is only one reason to condemn Nato action: the inability of action confined to the air to prevent the murderous activities of paramilitary groups. Only ground troops can do that. If Nato does not want to risk its own soldiers in a ground war when it has a moral duty to arm the only other people who could possibly do so, the KLA.

ADRIAN HASTINGS

Leeds