Madam, - Now that the Western powers have armed the Pakistani army of President Musharraf to the hilt, it has turned to bite the hand that armed it. Musharraf, in the guise of confronting terrorism, is using his declared state of emergency to suppress human rights activists, the judiciary and the political opposition.
The bland condemnations from the American and British governments will achieve little for the cause of human rights in nuclear-armed Pakistan as Musharraf now realises his forces are indispensable to Western military strategy in the area.
Short-term, myopic Western support for "favoured" regimes continues to spawn oppression and disregard of human rights for the people of these regimes. - Yours, etc,
BRENDAN BUTLER, NGO Peace Alliance, Phibsborough Road, Dublin 7.
Madam, - Pakistan has dramatically suspended its Constitution.
We have more subtle methods here. The Constitution is circumvented.
This is more discreet, and is just as effective. - Yours, etc,
DONAL O'DRISCOLL, Dargle Road, Blackrock, Co Dublin.