Letter: No tears for Tudjman

Sir: To allow Croatia into the European fold is premature. The victims of Operation Storm were Croatian Serbs, not Serbian "occupiers" - people who were born and owned property in Croatia, worked, paid taxes and intermarried with "good Croatians". And what of the Croatian writers and journalists forced to live in exile? Should they book their plane tickets home just yet? Political promises that all will be well in the new Croatia should be taken with a mountain of salt.

It is not Europe's responsibility to nursemaid Croatia toward respectability. It is Croatia's job to grow up, ditch its crude nationalistic posturing and give its exiled citizens their lives back - with a Nato-style police force for protection if necessary - before any global membership badges are handed out.

LENA ERAKOVICH

London N5