Sir, - For at least the third time in 1999, we are watching the destruction and annihilation of an ethnic group by their larger and more powerful neighbours.
Unlike Kosovo and East Timor, six weeks of terror have passed in Chechnya and there has been but the mildest expressions of condemnation from those nations whose influence could prevent these atrocities from continuing. Once more, we are seeing political expediency on a grand scale from the international community. Meanwhile, the army and government of the Russian Federation are free to commit genocide against a people in the name of fighting terrorism.
Massive human rights violations are being perpetrated against the civilian population of Chechnya. There are estimates that the population has been halved as a result of the Russian bombardment.
The UN Security Council, of which Russia is a permanent member, is standing silently by and is now complicit in this genocide as in so many before where it does not suit members' strategic interests to intervene.
The Russian Federation is not content to just bomb Chechnya, it also finds it necessary to ensure that the Chechen people's right to flee the bombing and the terror is impeded.
Russia has violated and continues to violate the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols and is guilty of committing war crimes.
Will these be punished by an International War Crimes Tribunal or will the end result of this war be the political success of Vladimir Putin in the upcoming election and the creation of yet another despot by the West? - Yours, etc.,
Justin Kilcullen, Director, Trocaire, Booterstown Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin.