Letter: How British citizens could help the Bosnians

Sir: Rebecca Tinsley accuses the British Foreign Office of being spineless and hypocritical in its approach to the current civil war in Bosnia. She fails to identify how Western governments can use their influence to address the causes rather than the symptoms of this war. She reaches the rather dubious conclusion that we could find a quick solution if there were oilfields in Bosnia.

It would have been more convincing to point to the premature recognition of Bosnia's statehood by the West as one of the catalysts that sparked the civil war. That led towns to erupt into the sort of violence and killing that Europe has not seen for many decades, and that has set Bosnians at each other's throats in pursuit of narrow sectarian aims.

By referring to 'Bosnians' and 'aggressors', Ms Tinsley has failed to grasp the point that all those fighting are Bosnians: the Bosnian Serbs, the Bosnian Muslims and the Bosnian Croats (with the aid of the regular Croatian army). Because Western governments are aware that there is no one aggressor, that there is no group more or less entitled to be Bosnian than the other, they would sensibly reject the advice Ms Tinsley offers.

While the three indigenous Bosnian nationalities continue to fight, there is little that any outside group can do to arrest this civil war. Attempting to do so may settle the conscience of West Deeping, but it is the surest way to escalation that would inevitably threaten the lives of British servicemen.

Yours faithfully,

JOHN KENNEDY

London, W1

3 August