Letter: Western action that the Serbs fear

Sir: Faced with the humiliation of Western Europe, Nato, the United Nations, and indeed everyone who disapproves of genocide and 'ethnic cleansing', the time has come to stop leaning over backwards to be 'even-handed' to the Serbian leadership who do not even represent a majority of Serbs and Bosnian Serbs.

There is no need to kneel to Radovan Karadzic and Slobodan Milosovic to get some scrap of paper signed by them purporting to mean peace. Western Europe, Nato, the US and the UN have the means unilaterally to freeze the present front lines and open essential corridors. Only the will is absent - the same way it was when Hitler invaded the Rhineland.

I have just returned from Bosnia where I learnt that even now, after two years of aggression with impunity, the Serbs are far more vulnerable than most suppose. Behind the bluster and the lies (currently designed to isolate General Rose as a British imperialist), Serb leaders fear even such limited determined action against them.

Serb morale is poor, many are unhappy with their leadership's policies and want peace at any reasonable price. Serbia is hurting with sanctions and the Russians cannot support Karadzic and Mladic's 'final solution' of the ethnic problem. Russia is a multi-ethnic state flanked by Muslim countries.

We are dealing with a handful of isolated men who have the nerve to condemn the world for meddling in their evil ways.

Yours sincerely,

JOHN PEDLER

Kew, Surrey

15 April