Nato's shame
From Mr John Laugh/and Sir: I was intrigued by Ann Cooper's admis- sion (Letters, 18 March) that the Serb broad- caster RTS had 'played a limited role in incit- ing ethnic violence in Kosovo last spring'. When Nato bombed the television studios, Tony Blair defended the attack by saying the exact opposite of this. I trust that this now makes his indictment as a war criminal more likely. I also note with satisfaction that Jamie Shea admits that Kosovo 'displays surprising- ly few scars of war, particularly if compared with Bosnia' (Diary, 18 March), a view I have been labelled a 'revisionist' for holding.
Ann Cooper says that her Committee to Protect Journalists does not count as jour- nalists those who work for 'any media out- let that is used to incite violence'. Yet CNN, the BBC and other major Western media outlets played a key role in sustain- ing public support for the Nato attacks on Yugoslavia through their enthusiastic ped- dling of KLA propaganda. They used the same tactic of incitement to revenge (for alleged Serb atrocities) of which she accus- es the Serbs during the Bosnian and Croat- ian wars. And what are headlines like 'Clobba Slobba!', of which David Yelland boasts (Cogito, Ergo Sun', 18 March), if not incitements to violence? Does the Committee to Protect Journalists also exclude staff at the Sun?
John Laugh/and
JLAUGHLAND@aol.com
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