Letter: Choices facing Nato

Sir: The peace offer by President Milosevic (report, 7 April) confirms, if confirmation was ever needed, that he has already achieved his political objective, which was to create an ethnically pure state.

If the West does not like the new Serbian state, and wants all refugees to return home, it needs to take two actions: first liberate Kosovo, and then declare it either an independent state or partition it along ethnic lines.

But both of these options are likely to freeze, not resolve, the ethnic conflict - witness how, despite the partition of Bosnia into Croatian, Muslim and Serbian parts, and despite the presence of over 34,000 Nato- led troops, hardly any refugees are returning home.

Creating an independent or par-titioned Kosovo may be necessary to salvage Nato's credibility, but it would be no incentive for the refugees to return home.

RANDHIR SINGH BAINS

Gants Hill, Essex