8 MARCH 2003, Page 32

Leave them alone

From Mr Anthony G. Phillips

Sir John Laughland's perceptive article (Hands off Northern Cyprus', 22 February) concludes with a sentiment which could equally apply in many parts of the globe. It is difficult to see what long-term benefit foreign intervention has had in the past 50 years, and arguably many of those nations would have been ultimately no worse off if left to sort themselves out. From Korea, French IndoChina and Vietnam, Suez, Cyprus, Indonesia, Aden and numerous African countries through to the Balkans and Afghanistan, only the Gulf war and Sierra Leone can even remotely qualify as interventions where the locals have enjoyed benefits that outweighed the damage inflicted upon them.

Anthony G. Phillips

Salisbury, Wiltshire