LETTER: Shifting blame in Balkans

GEORGE Tintor would be well advised to choose his words more carefully (Letters, 17 September). The plight of the Serb refugees who are leaving their homes in Bosnia cannot be described as "extermination", a word that more appropriately applies to the mass slaughter and rape which for three years have been directed against Bosnia's Muslim population.

And if Nato's bombing of Serb military targets makes it "an accomplice to genocide", one has to wonder how to label the arms embargo against Bosnia, without which exterminating the Muslims would have been more difficult. Also, the Serb "exodus" should be viewed in the light of the Serb propaganda about "Islamic terrorism" rather than in relation to any policy of the Bosnian government which remains the only authority in the region that champions pluralism and multi-ethnicity.

Dr Salah Ezz

Oxford