LETTER: A world with the will to make peace

From Mr Y. Kovach

Sir: Both Adrian Hastings and Hugh Murnaghan (letters, 24 November) criticise the Dayton plan for Bosnia because it accepts a form of partition. They may care to reflect upon President Alija Izetbegovic's reaction to the murderous expulsion of the Krajina Serb nation from its "UN protected" 400-year-old homeland in early August.

This was the largest single instance of ethnic cleansing within Europe since the end of the Second World War. Croatia thereby became, more or less, ethnically pure while the expelled Krajina Serb nation faces "historical" extermination - surely a greater wrong than the partition of Bosnia.

Though purporting to favour multi-ethnicity and claiming jurisdiction over Bosnia's Serbs, President Izetbegovic had no qualms in rushing to a Croatia which had just become "Serbenfrei" to receive its highest state award from a triumphant President Franjo Tudjman.

No wonder Bosnia's Serbs perceive an integral Bosnian state as not being in their interests.

Yours faithfully,

Y. Kovach

Twickenham,

Middlesex

26 November