U.S. Intervention in the Baltics

In the more peaceful past, your analysis of Balkan events usually brought snickers to us Slavs who realized that yet another American journalist was being made a fool of by the subtle machinations of our friends. It is irresponsible that you are using your position to spread the Bosnian civil war as far and wide as possible (editorial, Jan. 24). You ask that the Owen-Vance peace plan be abandoned. In its place you don’t propose any alternative. Rather, you imply that the solution is to punish the Serbs. The atrocities committed by all sides evoke the grimmest feelings among my Albanian, Croat, Magyar, Muslim, and Serb friends. Your call for intervention will only give us another ride on the roller coaster of vengeance.

Peace in the Balkans will not be created by a Western jihad to civilize the barbarians. The tone of your editorial only reinforces the worst tribal elements. The Owen-Vance plan creates the breathing room for responsible leaders to regain control and bring sanity back to Europe.

Your paper would better contribute to peace by concentrating on its positive aspects. The proposed plan gives the Muslims government control of the richest industrial areas of Bosnia. War criminals will be ruthlessly tracked down. The protection of minority rights and culture will be a key feature of its details. Maybe the peace plan will also direct diplomats away from rigid thinking that the nation-state is the sole path of sovereignty.

ALEXANDER P. VUCELIC

Long Beach