Sir, - I would take issue with your editorial (December 4th) which you end as follows ... "but there is no certainty that Mr Milosevic, if overthrown, will be replaced by democrats. Powerful right wing and orthodox church figures are lurking in the wings. Since when does it follow that right wing policies are automatically undemocratic and if extreme right wing political parties do exist in Serbia, I would suggest that they are there as the result of the treatment the Serbian people received from the so called democratic West over the five years of brutal sanctions, rather that their natural inclination toward such policies.
But you go further, and include Orthodox church figures in this undemocratic grouping. Had you bothered to do your research properly, you would have found that, throughout this civil war, the Patriarch of Serbia and the Council of Bishops have sent numerous appeals for the ending of the war, and for peaceful negotiations. Furthermore, they have constantly appealed to the Serbs involved in the fighting to conduct themselves according to the highest standards of Christianity and the teachings of the Holy Church. In one such appeal, The Patriarich says: I beg you, on my bended knees..." Enough said, I think.
Your innuendo is an insult to the Orthodox Church in general, and to the Serbian Orthodox Church in particular. - Yours, etc.,
Serbian Information Bureau,
12 Hermitage Lawn,
Grange Road,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.