Letter: The whiff of war from a local newspaper

Sir: I guess that your publication of a special edition of Sarajevo's daily newspaper, Oslobodenje (5 March), was inspired by Bosnian activists. Whatever the inspiration, nothing I have read or seen about the conflict there has remotely approached the real whiff of war, its grief and suffering, that this pull-out puts across.

Fed as we are on a diet of sweeping generalisations, summit reports and sensational images, it is moving to read of the detail of life in Sarajevo: the cost of a packet of cigarettes, the memorial notices for individuals, the trick of shooting out the Serbian floodlights. Nobody knows the city or its citizens and their struggle better then these journalists who, it seems, are living in the same circumstances. And, of course, in this context the partisan editorials come across as right and proper. I for one felt for a moment as if I was standing on a Sarajevo street corner, cold, hungry and scared.

I am also convinced that the Independent should run a regular series of special editions of local papers in translation, not only from Yugoslavia but from, say, Moscow, Baku or wherever suffering lurks behind the worldwide headlines. Then even armchair liberals like me might be tempted to do something for their fellow human beings in far-off places.

Yours faithfully,

STUART BAILEY

Woodlands St Mary,

Berkshire

5 April