Letter: Catalogue of cruelty

Sir: The debate in the Independent about the need to ensure the survival of Sarajevo and the claims and counter-claims as to its practicality are deeply moving and disturbing.

We at the Prisoners of Conscience Appeal Fund take no political position on this issue. However, we have received more than 300 applications for relief in the last few weeks on behalf of Bosnian refugees. Each gives a brief history, and the whole comprises a catalogue of inhumanity - in the words of one man who speaks more eloquently than I: 'What I saw and lived through would be impossible to imagine by a sound mind.'

The civilised world cannot simply stand by and let this genocide continue to happen.

Yours faithfully,

TOM BLUMENEAU

Director, Prisoners of Conscience

Appeal Fund

London, NW8