U.N. Troops in Bosnia

* Your editorial of May 29 on Bosnia repeats the suggestion of a West pullout as the answer to the Bosnian Serb intransigence. Their current acts of terrorism--hostage-taking added to targeting of civilians in “safe areas”--are the acts of desperadoes. This bluster is aimed at the West once more caving in now! Such appeasement would reward them with what the Serb aggression had gained them.

But the recent gains by both Bosnians and Croatians have shown the Serbs to be overstretched and that the tide could be turning. Further, the balance of power will stop the bullying. The Times’ editorials have also repeatedly called for a lifting of the Bosnian arms embargo. It would be a step toward a just peace and not just any peace.

ANTHONY F. BAZDARICH

Mid-California Chapter

American-Croatian Assn.

Santa Barbara

* The best thing to do in this unsolvable situation is to pull the U.N. out, arm the Bosnians and let the pieces fall where they may. No outside power can broker peace where hatred has persisted for generations. The U.N. effort has been a total, humiliating failure. Let the bad blood run its course. At least allied troops won’t die on foreign soil where we have no real interest. Only when our interests are threatened should we respond firmly and decisively.

DANIEL PLICHTA

Lakewood

* Regarding the U.N. hostage situation in Bosnia: Are we still required to respect the U.N.? Does the U.N. respect itself? Is this the New World Order?

HASSAN HATHOUT

Pasadena

* As soon as there is a crisis in Bosnia, a Muslim representative is asked to respond to Serbian “atrocities,” but a Serb is never allowed to respond, for it won’t do for the American people to be fully informed. The fact that the U.N. lit the fuse in Bosnia is never mentioned: The U.N., by its own laws, did not have the right to destroy a sovereign member state, which Yugoslavia was.

And then there are the politicians: Douglas Hurd, the representative of “Great” Britain, is telling Serbs that they cannot have a “Great” Serbia; the United States, which has the right to be united and “indivisible,” is ready to bomb the Serbs for their radical view of wanting the same thing. The Muslim politician that was killed in his helicopter (May 29) is not rebuked for flying in a “no-fly zone”--only Serbs are blamed.

Serbs are never allowed to answer the charges laid against them. The American people do not know the whole story of what is going on in Bosnia, and thankfully are not ready to spill the blood of their soldiers for a Muslim cause.

DONNA MILLICH

Glendale