MANY local people were opposed to the bombing of Yugoslavia. Those who supported the bombing, including the MP for Hyndburn, Greg Pope, should have to justify what they have done.

It was appalling to see government ministers, who spent the last general election talking about ethics, care and compassion, strutting around like warmongers.

The British Government's aggressive and eager support for the bombing ran to the extent of calling for a ground invasion, with the massive loss of life which would have followed.

What has come out of the last two months is no victory for humanitarian ideals. Even worse, a British Government minister has said that there will be no help with reconstruction in Yugoslavia - the whole population are now to be blamed for the actions of their government.

Is it a humanitarian war which kills 2,000 civilians and wounds 4,000 more, destroys water and power supplies, attacks hospitals, trains, buses, factories, TV stations and road bridges?

Compare this with the 5,000 Yugoslav troops, many of them likely to be conscripts, who were also killed.

In the Prime Minister's ugly phrase, the bombing was intended to "degrade Yugoslavia's military forces." As far as Nato was concerned, everything became a legitimate target. If the bombing meant civilian casualties then that was a "consequence of war." There was no apology for the deaths of civilians because it was regarded as appeasement to say sorry.

It was all British Government ministers could do to even acknowledge that civilians had been killed. When they did, they said that the ultimate responsibility for the Nato deaths lay with the Yugoslav Government any way.

It is almost certain that Britain and the other Nato countries have broken the United Nations Charter. But our government was quite prepared to ignore the scrapping of UN procedures and gave its full support to Nato military action.

The message that is being sent is that if it can get away with it, Nato will in future decide who is to be bombed and who is not. But a look at some of the Nato forces carrying out the bombing is enough to show that this organisation is not about humanitarian ideals.

The Turkish airforce took part in the bombing of Yugoslavia, yet Turkey has been internationally condemned for persecuting and killing 46,000 Kurds. Far from condemning Turkey, the Prime Minister has supported its application to become a member of the European Union. Human rights abuses can be quietly overlooked in some cases but not in others. The bombing has not increased the chances of a more humane world order, it has done the opposite. It has undermined the UN and it has shown that Nato will use military force when it thinks fit.

Neither was the bombing some kind of necessary response to the actions carried out by the Yugoslav regime. The negotiation of a UN 'peacekeeping' body for Kosovo, containing Russian and other forces, could have been agreed before the bombing started, but Nato was not having this.

It really is necessary to question why governments such as our own have only a selective and inconsistent respect for human rights.

PETER BILLINGTON, East Crescent, Accrington.

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