Letter: Bosnia: superpowers in the wings

Sir: Why is your East Europe editor so scathing about the UN air strikes in Bosnia ('The West opens fire without knowing why', 11 April), when your newspaper has recently campaigned to lift the siege of Sarajevo, also without any overall peace strategy?

Bombing the Serbs could be seen as tinkering, in that it will have only a small effect on the overall territorial position. Its main aim seems to me, however, to be to strengthen General Rose's, and hence the UN's, credibility. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, might is right. Where the politicians have so signally failed, UN military power represents an outpost of civilisation among a

people ravaged by warlords and hatred.

Even in the absence of a publicly acknowledged peace plan, this beacon of hope deserves to be kept alight.

Yours sincerely,

GRAHAM DANE

Edinburgh

12 April