Sir, – Your Editorial (May 29th) states that the massacre in Houla, Syria apparently by local Allawite militia “ominously recalls the Bosnian Serb ethnic cleansing of Srebrenica”.
Another similarity is the fact that Kofi Anan, now UN special envoy to Syria also played a key international role at the time of Srebrenica. From 1995 to 1996, he was under secretary for UN peacekeeping in Bosnia .
As the appalling atrocities in Syria continue to escalate daily on his watch, surely instead of trying to bolster support for his now discredited peace plan, as your Editorial seems to advocate,we might do better to reflect on his laudably frank report on Srebrenica in November 1999 and his obvious regret for the failure of the international community to protect the population: “In both instances, in Bosnia and in Kosovo, the international community tried to reach a negotiated settlement with an unscrupulous and murderous regime. In both instances it required the use of force to bring a halt to the planned and systematic killing and expulsion of civilians . . .Through error, misjudgment and an inability to recognise the scope of the evil confronting us, we failed to do our part to help save the people of Srebrenica from the Serb campaign of mass murder.
“No one regrets more than we the opportunities for achieving peace and justice that were missed. No one laments more than we the failure of the international community to take decisive action to halt the suffering and end a war that had produced so many victims.” – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Having spend 32 years with an international organisation, primarily in war zones, I would strongly support international intervention in the Syrian conflict to prevent the continuing killing of civilians.
We have repeatedly been told by the US that Al-Qaeda is a “terrorist organisation”.
In view of the fact that international journalists have confirmed many leaders of the anti-Assad forces are Al-Qaeda operatives (including an Irish resident), I am concerned that Western governments are strongly supporting the anti-government forces.
The government of Syria may be far from perfect, however having lived in the country I can confirm minority groups, mainly Christian and Jewish (of whom there is a large community) are allowed to function.
Many other governments in the region do not demonstrate such tolerance.
I pose the question, “Would it be in the best interests of the region to have a Muslim fundamentalist state on the border with Israel? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Why is President Assad not being treated as was Charles Taylor of Liberia? Surely the precedent has been set. – Yours, etc,