Letter: Massacre in Timor

Sir: Robin Cook tells us that the Indonesian regime may need "help" from the international community in "restoring stability" in East Timor. Much as the Waffen SS needed "help" in "restoring stability" in the Warsaw ghetto.

The widely held view, reiterated by Cook in recent days, that there isn't time to assemble this "help" is a further interesting distortion of reality. By 11 August 1990, eight days after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, 40,000 US troops had been assembled in the Gulf. By 4 September 100,000 were in position. But then, of course, the flow of oil, not blood, was the issue at hand.

DAVID EDWARDS

Bournemouth, Dorset