Vojislav Kostunica

* I do really hope that the Serbs will show all their support to Vojislav Kostunica and not accept Slobodan Milosevic’s vile cheating in organizing a runoff. I am, though, still astonished at the lack of analysis in your Sept. 26 editorial. It says, “Kostunica himself is as much a Serb nationalist as Milosevic. He condemned last year’s NATO air raids.”

Do you really think that a candidate for the presidency has any chance of being elected by telling his people that the NATO bombing was a good thing for them? The bombing was supposed to rid the Serbs of Milosevic and help stabilize the region. Milosevic is still there, Yugoslavia’s infrastructure needs 20 years to be rebuilt, Yugoslavia became the poorest country in Europe after the bombing, and the region is far from stable.

JOVANA GOBIN

Los Angeles

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* According to your Sept. 26 article regarding the massively corrupt election in Yugoslavia, which threatens to keep dictator Milosevic in power, the House of Representatives has reacted with astonishing swiftness and largess to aid the opposition and pro-democracy groups to the tune of $500 million.

While I commend the spirit and generosity with which we Americans so frequently dispense money to those in need around the world, I cannot help but ask myself why I continue to see so many starving and homeless people on the streets in our own cities and country. There are approximately 10,000 such unfortunates in the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco alone, by conservative estimates. If the sum authorized by our Congress for use in Serbia and Montenegro were instead used to provide shelter alone to the 10,000 homeless Americans in California’s two largest cities, the dollars available per person would equal $50,000.

Can we afford to turn a blind eye to our own populace in exchange for some well-meaning but probably fruitless attempt to create democracy in Yugoslavia?

DAVID TEMIANKA

Los Angeles