Kosovo Refugees

Re “Red Tape Untangled, Teen Refugee Red-Eyed After Seeing Family,” May 14: I was truly relieved to hear that the brave 14-year-old refugee, Mentor Hoti, has been reunited with his family. From when I first heard of his plight, I was brokenhearted, even angry at times, at the turn of events that transpired to keep this young man from being reunited with his parents and family.

I further wish to compliment the reporters for bringing us such a heart-rending story of one teenager so hopelessly lost in the shuffle of a horrible war, due to the disgraceful actions of the Serbian leadership. I felt as if this were real life imitating art. The story should have been called “Saving Mentor Hoti.”

STEFANIE DuBOIS

Northridge

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So yet another refugee convoy is destroyed (May 15). Enough! How many bombs will have to kill more defenseless civilians, Albanians as well as Serbs, until this madness stops? This is turning into a worse quagmire than anyone ever thought and there is no end in sight to the hemorrhage of money and the destruction of homes and bridges and buildings, as well as the constant killing of civilians. I see that you never publish polls anymore, as you did when the impeachment proceedings were going on. Is that because the American people are turning against this absurd war of President Clinton’s?

Stop this bombing insanity now and bring our planes home.

PAUL SEBASTIAN

Arroyo Grande

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Why not fight “fire with fire”? As an alternative to stationing ground troops in Kosovo, why not remove the restrictions on the Air Force? Drop leaflets one week in advance to notify the Serbs that they must evacuate their homes, because their villages are going to be destroyed by air attacks.

The Serbian military has forced the people in Kosovo to leave their homes and then destroyed many of their villages and towns. Perhaps the Serbs need to share that experience to understand what they have done, i.e. they need to know what it is like. Maybe then the Serbian people won’t be so supportive of their own government’s actions. Why should Serbian citizens continue to condone the atrocities committed by their own government while the rest of the civilized world has to come to arms in defense of others?

AL JOHNSON

Garden Grove

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Don’t bother printing more awkward and defensive statements by NATO officials to justify the war in Serbia. Just give us more like Yugoslav government minister Goran Matic (May 14). According to Matic, the Kosovo refugees are an elaborate hoax, where 3,000 or 4,000 Albanian actors, hired by NATO, have been parading around in circles through the Balkans, creating the illusion of an exodus of Kosovar Albanians.

Statements like that tell better than anything else what kind of madmen we are dealing with there.

DAVE KASE

Palos Verdes Estates

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We are told that we have satellites mapping the world--with cameras capable of reading an automobile license plate. Such intelligence should be turned over to our intelligence agencies. Or is that too intelligent a thought?

T.A. GRINSTEAD

West Covina