Sir, - We live in the age of communications, so we know. We cannot pretend that we don't and yet, while the people of Chechnya are dying in slow agony, we are urged to enjoy and celebrate. We are party poopers if we don't. What are we if we do?
The assault on Grozny was launched on Christmas day because the world would be too distracted to pay attention. Who was being spared? Our governments, who would not be pestered by the usual cranks even as the World Bank and IMF prepared to lend more money to Russia? It is quite obvious that, as long as Russia pursues market reforms, they have decided to look the other way and abandon the people of Grozny and the young Russian recruits who will also die there to their horrible fate.
Vincent Browne rightly condemns the lack of action of Western countries, and indeed their complicity in the genocides in Africa (Opinion, December 29th). He ends on a bitter note: "Africans matter even less than the Jews did." I'm afraid it is humanity itself that does not seem to matter any more.
Our parents said they did not know. What shall we tell our children and grandchildren? - Yours, etc., Claudine Gaidoni,
Ailesbury Grove, Dundrum, Dublin 16.