Letter: Save Timor

Sir: All signatories to the UN convention on genocide are jointly committed to its prevention and suppression. Genocide is defined to include murder, serious bodily harm, creation of intolerable conditions of life, the preventions of births or the forcible deportation of children, "with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".

What is happening in East Timor is probably not a systematic and total extermination as in Rwanda, but it does constitute a prima facie case of genocide under the convention. The British government should honour its obligations by supporting immediate UN intervention under the convention.

JOHN MACKINNON

London SE5