Letter: Kosovo shame

Sir: The Independent makes particularly grim reading today ("Serbs butcher Kosovo children", 30 September). The latest pictures of murdered Albanian children will doubtless prompt another round of hand-wringing in Western capitals and lead to calls for Slobodan Milosevic to be charged with war crimes and to yet more empty threats of military intervention.

Perhaps justice might be as well served by charging the European heads of state with appeasement? The failure of Nato and European leaders to do any more than bluster for months now while Kosovo burns shames us all.

The coming Balkan winter will be a desperate one for the estimated 275,000 refugees in Kosovo and the hot air pouring forth from London, Bonn, Paris and Brussels will do nothing to warm them.

MARTIN WILLCOX

Sheffield