19 MARCH 1994, Page 28

LETTERS Unwavering indecision

Sir: Noel Malcolm's incisive analysis of Mr Douglas Hurd's lamentable misjudgments in respect of the Bosnian crisis has put all of us in his debt CA most undeserved repu- tation', 5 March). The Foreign Secretary is a man of culture and has a sense of honour. How can he go on holding his post seeing that his Balkan policy is in ruins and the damage done in its pursuit has undermined the credibility of Europe and the western alliance? Mr Hurd's unwavering indecision has disrupted Nato, alienated the Ameri- cans, enraged the Muslim world, antago- nised the Germans, widened the gulf with the French, discouraged our friends in Cen- tral Europe and brought the Russians back into the Serb-held areas of the Balkans after a 46-year absence we had fought hard to preserve. I will say nothing about the offence caused to the moral sense of the British people, though I regard that as paramount.

The argument that there is nothing to worry about because we are now in dia- logue with 'a new Russia' is open to grave doubt. So long as the old Soviet apparatus is everywhere in power in the Russian Fed- eration (and indeed in the CIS), so long as Russian expansionism is indistinguishable from that of the Soviet Union despite the collapse of Soviet ideology, Russia as she now is cannot yet be said to be new. Our only safe course of action is to sit tight on the Russian front, minimising, when it comes, the impact of the next Russian implosion on the rest of Europe and the world. We should certainly not encourage the import of the carriers of Russia's multi- ple infections into the middle of Europe, least of all into Serb-held territories where they can do most damage.

To say, therefore, as both the Prime Min- ister and Mr Hurd have done, that the arrival of Russian troops under the UN but on the Serb side of the Bosnian conflict is a positive development is another huge mis- judgment for which a price will eventually have to be paid. The Russian presence may well be a stabilising factor for the Serbs and their conquests, but it will spell the oppo- site of stability for everyone else.

G. R. Urban

14 Palmeira Square, Hove, Sussex