Sir, - If Irish defence and foreign policy is to be debated according to facts (Daniel Keohane, World View, May 12th), shouldn't we know all the facts? Mr Keohane mentions Bosnia and Kosovo in the context of a commitment by Ireland to collective security through the United Nations and the upholding of international law. Yet, in the cases so mentioned, international law was set aside by the NATO alliance in pursuance of its own geo-political and military interests. The NATO Alliance also violated its own statute, which promised that NATO would not initiate aggression against other countries.
Mr Keohane insists that the end of the Cold war has changed the situation for Ireland and we must now do things which we did not contemplate doing before now. Why? Has the UN Charter been amended? Has international law on warfare and aggression been abolished?
Given that the origins and conduct of the civil war in Yugoslavia are disputed and that the Irish media have not been very diligent in providing the full facts of what happened and continues to happen there, why should we rush to ally ourselves with one group of lawbreakers rather than another?
The Irish media have not, to my knowledge, ever mentioned the KLA's involvement in largescale drug-trafficking, prostitution and female slavery rackets. We have yet to see any evidence of so-called "mass graves" in Kosovo which supposedly "justified" the NATO bomb campaign, nor one burned-out Yugo tank which NATO bombs were supposedly targeting in hundreds. We have seen NATO-bombed bridges, railways, hospitals, electricity stations, oil refineries, TV stations, foreign embassies and civilian transport in Yugoslavia during the NATO aggression.
We have seen the NATO member Turkey slaughter with impunity the unfortunate Kurdish population in its own territory and in northern Iraq, invade and occupy the north of Cyprus since 1974, threaten to invade neighbouring Syria, all in gross violation of the UN Charter and international law.
We witness, daily, the NATO surrogate Israel imposing military terror and state murder on the civilian population of Palestine. Are these the glorious, humanitarian, peace-making forces which, according to Mr Keohane, will provide the "variety of crisis management responses" that our traditional aims now require? I don't think so. Far better for Ireland to adhere strictly to the UN Charter and, as required by our Bunreacht, established international law. - Yours, etc.,
Seamas Ratigan, Dublin 8.