Letter: Bosnia: our shame will haunt us

Sir: I have just received a telephone call from Dubrovnik, Croatia. The voice I heard sounds older each time.

'It is so quiet here; this is strange, because it's summer. If only you knew how the town is empty, more than it ever was in winter, so many years ago, remember? The people are frightened. There are suicides. A friend of mine jumped off a cliff just yesterday; he seemed to be a rational person. Outside the walls the countryside is still there, but the houses along the coast are all damaged.

'We are waiting, heaven knows for what. The people feel abandoned. Should we go on hoping? Who knows, after the storm, they say, there has to come the

sunshine.'

Yours sincerely,

HELEN RHINELANDER

St Lunaire, France

8 June