Sir, - I see that the revision downward from 100,000 to fewer than 3,000 in the number of ethnic Albanians killed by the Serbs in Kosovo warranted two column inches on page 10 (The Irish Times, August 18th). It would be reasonable to assume that most of these killings occurred during the 78-day NATO bombardment of Serbia. Certainly, in reports at the time, one was given the impression that attacks on Kosovo Albanians were increased by an order of magnitude by the start of the bombing campaign, and with NATO functioning as the KLA air force during what was already the nastiest as possible of civil wars, this would be a reasonable expectation.
If so, then perhaps 300 died before the bombs began to fall. The 100,000 figure itself must have been the result of a somewhat more discreet downward revision, because I had been under the impression that "hundreds of thousands" had been killed.
NATO's propaganda claims made Irish Times headlines, and helped to convince many of your readers that unlicensed military intervention was justified. Now that it is clearer that Ireland (itself a small, neutral nation with interests in a neighbouring province) was tricked into joining the cheering for a sordid military adventure, was that not "news"? Did it not justify a little more space and perhaps even a comment? - Yours, etc.,
William Hunt, Harold's Cross, Dublin 6W.