Chechnya

Your Nov. 11 editorial on Russia’s brutalization of Chechnya was a welcome change from the “let’s just look the other way and hopefully it will soon be over” approach adopted by our administration and the news media in general. These are the same people who were screaming bloody murder at Yugoslavia when the Serbian army was also going after “terrorists” (KLA militants) in Kosovo, just as the Russians say they are in Chechnya.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe must play a lead role in bringing about an urgent end to the ongoing slaughter and ethnic cleansing of innocent Chechens, but that does not relieve our own administration from its responsibility. Simple words of “concern” will not be enough. We must stand behind the same principles of human rights and universal moral and legal standards we so vociferously touted in the Kosovo crisis and demand, backed by economic threats, that Russia immediately cease this bloody war and adopt a peaceful approach to resolving the problems in the area.

S.M. HUSSAIN

Woodland Hills