Balkan War and Genocide

* The audacity inherent in Daryl G. Press’ “Terrible as It Is, It’s Not Genocide,” (Commentary, Aug. 13) is a testament to the rapid degeneration of our political Establishment’s moral consciousness. The wonders of technology have brought to our television screens and newspapers the horrors of war, the shame of rape, the shock of emasculation and the humiliation of displacement. Despite all this, observers such as Press play semantic games over what differentiates “war crimes” from “genocide.”

What is even more perplexing is his definition of the latter--that being “the systematic annihilation of a racial, political or cultural group.” The Muslim majority of Bosnia happen to fit Press’ meaning for genocide, and they are being murdered and sexually violated precisely for their religious distinctions and dominant numbers; yet Press feels their plight is not within the realm of carnage?

AHMAD ABULJOBAIN

Annandale, Va.

* What is happening in Yugoslavia is genocide. German genocide does not differ at all from the Serbian genocide. The Germans annihilated millions of non-Germans, as the Serbians are annihilating non-Serbs.

The most important issue is that men, women and children are presently being killed, and no one is doing much about it. Maybe if we wait long enough and the death rates get higher, Press will find the “evidence” he needs that will prove that the Serbian genocide fits with his definition of genocide.

The U.S. cannot stand around and watch any longer. How many holocausts must we have in our history books until we are able to recognize when one is happening right before our eyes?

ELIZABETH NESKOVSKA

Los Angeles

* “Weary Croats Expect Renewal of Warfare” (Aug. 15) was written in such a way that it completely dehumanized the Serbs. As has been common throughout this entire war in the former Yugoslavia, the story was entirely slanted against the Serbs. The author, like most others, suggests that the Serbs have not suffered at all during this ugly, horrible war.

Why do we never see stories of the Serbian children that are homeless refugees? Do these children not qualify for our sympathy because they are Serbian?

MARIJA MICIC

San Pedro

* Great powers should not be swayed by emotion as they observe another country’s civil war.

What would America be like today if England and France had followed their natural inclination to support cotton growing states in order to feed their hungry weaving industry?

MARGARET W. ROMANI

Los Angeles