16 JUNE 1990, Page 20

Sir: Your comments on the 'injustice' of bringing possible war

criminals to court are very depressing (Leading article, 2 June). The assumption behind them is that British justice is quite incapable of coping with the kind of difficulties which do, indeed, attend war crimes trials, and which would no doubt, quite rightly, be made much of by defence counsels. But problems of identification and inherent bias are not unique to such trials, and, while it is true that recent British justice has not per- formed well, that you should advocate positive discrimination in favour of war criminals seems perverse.

P. J. Gwyn

Owl House, Vicarage Hill, Westerham, Kent