Sir, – The contrast between the two situations could not be starker.
While Nato mounts a sustained bombing campaign in the name of freedom and democracy in one part of Africa, millions of people face death in another part of the continent because their plight has been ignored by the West.
The Somali people are being driven from their country by an extreme drought and food-shortage situation, which has been exacerbated by the murderous activities of warlords and armed factions who have been allowed operate with impunity for years. Yet the international community has never seen fit to intervene in Somalia.
One can but wonder what criteria Nato uses to decide where to deploy its military might. Certainly, if the Somali and other situations are anything to go by, basic human rights and freedom from violence for powerless populations cannot be terribly high on its decision-makers’ list of priorities. – Yours, etc,
JOHN O’SHEA,
Goal, PO Box 19,
Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
Sir, – Could the revellers who set fire to their tents after the Oxegen music festival think about how their fellow human beings in Somalia would have been glad to receive them for shelter? How about the clean-up crew shipping what is still left to help shelter these poor unfortunate people? – Yours, etc,
ELAINE COGAVIN,
Mount Albany,
Blackrock, Co Dublin.