Kosovo

Re “Evidence Details Systematic Plan of Killings in Kosovo,” Aug. 8: The grim evidence is now in that most or all of the wholesale destruction and massacre of the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo probably could have been avoided if President Clinton had not repeatedly assured the Serbs that NATO would not use ground forces in its attack on Yugoslavia.

Slobodan Milosevic would hardly have dared unleash such a murderous rampage by Serbian military and police if he thought a NATO army might well invade and defend the helpless Albanians with overwhelming firepower.

Military experts were appalled by Clinton’s shortsighted, stupid policy of deliberately giving away NATO battle plans to the enemy, surely one of the most colossal blunders in the annals of warfare and with such tragic consequences.

CHARLES F. QUEENAN

Encino

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Re “An Agonized ‘Peace,’ ” editorial, Aug. 9: You make a strong argument against the U.N.’s creation in Kosovo of “a government of thousands of international civil servants” who will treat the Kosovars “as mere outside consultants.”

Under what they considered a Serb occupation, the Kosovar Albanians were unable to run their own lives. Now, they are prevented from doing so by what may soon be called “U.N. occupation.”

The U.N. intervention has resulted so far in denying the Kosovars independence, the right to see justice done (by allowing war criminals to flee to Serbia) and now self-rule. No wonder they turn to violence in a desperate attempt to preempt what increasingly looks like a bleak and uncertain future.

SALAH EZZ

Cairo