Letter: Realpolitik misses true interests

Sir: Correlli Barnett (letter, 29 December) tries to take a hard-

headed view of the interests of Western Europe. How many of those besieged in Sarajevo and other cities must die of hunger, cold, disease and shellfire before he would consider intervening? Would he welcome another million, mainly Muslim, refugees between now and Easter, and where would he accommodate them, given their unwillingness to live in Serbia, and Croatia's inability to receive more refugees? Is he unaware that the Middle Eastern powers say they will intervene with arms and volunteers, unless by 15 January the West protects the Bosnians effectively?

What effect will such Middle Eastern intervention have on Kosovo and the Sandjak, where the Muslim local majorities suffer repression of a loathsome kind at the hands of the ruling Serbs? The advocates of realpolitik have many questions to answer in our interdependent world, where the situation in Bosnia and neighbouring regions can have immediate repercussions on the Middle East and Africa, in both of which Europe has interests.

Yours faithfully,

HYLTON

House of Lords

London, SW1

29 December