Sir, - Fintan O'Toole (World News, June 19th) claims to prove that a policy of genocide was in process on the part of the Milosevic regime before the Kosovo war began on March 24th. Indeed, he claims that there was "overwhelming evidence that the Serb regime was moving inexorably" to that end "long before NATO took an interest". Allowing the shortest interpretation of "long before", this would implicate the Belgrade government in genocide in Kosovo - not just ethnic cleansing - from at least some months before the war. He implies that NATO negotiated in good faith to halt this "genocide" before resorting to war.
It matters enormously whether or not this claim can be substantiated. Much more than academic probity rests on its validity. If it is true, then indeed the first war in which moral principle outweighed self-interest has been fought. We do not have to like NATO to acknowledge with Mr O'Toole that, at least this time, "NATO stopped genocide in its tracks". If it is true, then the international system has tilted, slightly but significantly, towards a new order which offers hope that large-scale denial of human rights will not easily be tolerated.
Faced with plausible evidence in support of O'Toole claim, those who continue to criticise NATO's part in the war are irresponsibly inhibiting such a development and demonstrating that their cause is informed more by anti-American sentiment than by the criteria of logic and objectivity.
Conversely, anyone who uses the media to assert O'Toole's position without compelling, or even plausible, support is equally irresponsible in distorting the truth. The clear fact of state oppression does not exonerate us from the burden of respecting the evidence required to explain it. NATO should not be allowed to stop criticism in is tracks.
There is an increasing body of publicly available evidence contradicting O'Toole's claim. For many whose academic or activist work is directed to promoting ethical principle in foreign policy, it will come as a shock to learn that Mr O'Toole ignores this evidence, and that he dismisses them sarcastically as fellow-travellers, "remarkably reluctant to stand up to old-style fascists." His argument is almost entirely based on the ravings of one such fascist in his Serbian party newspaper and the insinuation - without evidence - that the views of this nationalist moron constituted the policy actively pursued by Belgrade in its cleansing of Kosovo. For once, Mr O'Toole's piece is unworthy of him. - Yours, etc.,
Dr BILL McSweeney, International Peace Studies Programme, Irish School of Ecumenics, Dublin 6.