Letter: Horror in Chechnya

Sir: It is precisely the lessons of Kosovo that have been learnt in Chechnya ("The West must stop ignoring the tragedy in Chechnya", 3 November). There is little point in upbraiding "the West" over torn civilian flesh in Grozny: we are well used to doing it ourselves.

Earlier this year the Western politicians you now appeal to unleashed a savage attack on the civilian population of Serbia and Kosovo. Ordinary people - families, children - were torn apart by shrapnel; cluster bombs did what they were designed to do to human flesh in town markets, suburban houses, hospitals, passenger trains and buses.

Talk of shame over someone else's brutality is just so much sanctimonious, hypocritical rhetoric as long as we continue to ignore the human wreckage left in the wake of our very own "lunacy" in the Balkans.

PETER McKENNA

Liverpool