Madam, - Hoshyar Zebari of the current Iraqi "government" was reported in your edition of November 14th report to be scrutinising Northern Ireland "very closely" in the hopes of glimpsing a possible solution to his own country's woes.
Mr Zebari might profitably search closer to home to find causes of the mayhem that now grips Iraq. Two news items of the same week confirmed as much:
1. It was reported that American forces now admit to using white phosphorus missiles against Iraqis. White phosphorus burns people to death and its use against people is banned by the Geneva Conventions and by international law.
2. It was also reported that more than 150 prisoners had been found locked in an Iraqi bunker. They had been beaten mercilessly. Some had been crippled. Some had their skins peeled off. Others had body parts cut off. This atrocity was carried out, not by the Iraqi Resistance against which Mr Zebari rails, but by the forces of the puppet "Iraqi Government" of which he is a willing and well-paid cabinet member.
Let Mr Zebari look into his own soul, rather than peer all the way to Northern Ireland for solutions to the human disaster that is now Iraq. - Yours, etc,
CHARLES HAYES,
Midleton,
Co Cork.