Bosnia: Overwhelming 'yes' to call for action

The response to The Independent's call yesterday for international action to secure the supply routes to Sarajevo has been overwhelming. Expressions of support fully occupied the two special fax lines made available to receive readers' views.

Two letters appear below and a further selection is printed on pages 8 and 9.

I thought two months ago that the pusillanimity of Western governments had finally made it too late for effective action to prevent the sacrifice of Bosnia to Serbian plans and Croatian opportunism, with the tragic humanitarian and dangerous political consequences that would follow.

I am encouraged by your articles today to think I was wrong. If Western governments would screw their courage up and allow themselves to be guided by the moral requirements, and by the appalling consequences of failure to act with determination, there is the possibility of rescuing something from the wreck.

I agree with your proposals.

SIR ANTONY DUFF

London

As an 80-year old grandmother I remember the previous betrayal very well, and believe we are back on the same merry-go-round.

It started on 7 March 1936 when Hitler announced the re-occupation of the Rhineland and gathered speed with the bombing of Guernica, in the Spanish Civil War.

By Munich it was too late: Churchill wrote: 'to leave. . . .Czechoslovakia to her fate was a melancholy lapse from which flowed terrible consequences.'

Surely we do not have to repeat all our mistakes over and over again?

MRS V. WESTERMAN

Bromley, Kent