Sir, - Our leaders repeatedly lecture us on the futility and evil of violence. We are told that there is no substitute for peaceful negotiation as a means to solve conflict. No one lectures us more often than Tony Blair. No one supports Mr Blair more steadfastly than our own Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
Yet Mr Blair is the foremost advocate of the illegal bombing of Serbia. Every night a terror is perpetuated on Belgrade as a sovereign state is demolished piece by piece. Innocent people are blown to bits, children are traumatised for ever, the livelihood of workers is destroyed.
Nobody should accept that the reasons given for this international terrorism are to save the Kosovar refugees or to force peace talks. That could have been achieved if NATO had not insisted on being the policeman in Kosovo, rather than allowing a truly international force into the region that would have respected the sovereignty of Serbia. The real reason for the terror is to preserve the integrity of NATO.
Mr Blair is now insisting on an imposed solution on Kosovo that will not be acceptable to the ordinary people of Serbia. How long more can we sit back and watch this brutal destruction of Yugoslavia and the deaths of innocents? - Yours, etc., Donal O'Dowd,
Fr Matthew Quay, Cork.