Letter: Hope for Timor

Sir: Diarmid O'Sullivan has produced a most perceptive article ("West tries to halt Timor vote violence", 4 May) about a complex problem which has been compounded by the greed of the West in selling arms which the Indonesians used to crush the East Timorese.

However, where your correspondent is wrong is over the availability and possible deployment of United Nations troops. Australia has East Timor on its doorstep and must be guilt-ridden by the atrocities committed by the Indonesian army. Australia was the only western country to accept Indonesia's "right" to East Timor. Australia has paid dearly for that indiscretion. Its standing in the world has suffered.

It is now doing much in an attempt to restore credibility, so let us hope that United Nations troops, led by the Australians, will be deployed in a troubled country which has suffered in silence far more than all of Yugoslavia.

ROGER WILLOTT

Worcester