Sir, - In recent days several questions have been exercising my mind and I have not yet found satisfactory answers to them. The bombing of Omagh was an appalling atrocity, especially so when one considers the expressed desire from all sides for a lasting peace. The deaths of 31 innocent victims, including the unborn, and the injuring of many innocent people, some very seriously, can only be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
The US missile attacks ordered by President Clinton on Afghanistan and Khartoum, resulting in the killing of some 28 innocent civilians and the maiming of many others in the former, and the injuring of some 10 victims in the latter, must also be seen by all sane and sensible people as appalling atrocities which could and should have been avoided.
Incredibly, it would seem that President Clinton was fully convinced that the Khartoum pharmaceutical plant was actually producing "VX" nerve gas, which is known to be the most lethal nerve gas ever developed. This allegation was vigorously denied by the Sudanese government and as yet the US has not published any evidence for its claim.
The questions which have been bothering me are:
1. What is the difference between the RIRA Omagh atrocity and President Clinton's twin atrocities in Afghanistan and Khartoum?
2. Was President Clinton willing to obliterate the civilian population of Khartoum by releasing waves of "VX" nerve gas, had there been any, from the bombed-out pharmaceutical plant located in the outskirts?
3. If Tony Blair was willing to follow President Clinton's example would he not have been entitled to bomb selected targets in the Republic as a reprisal for the Omagh atrocity?
Certain answers to these questions do suggest themselves, but I am reluctant to entertain them, mainly because I believe that illicit sex should have no part to play in international politics or have any influence over the lives of innocent civilians. - Yours, etc., W. G. A. Scott,
Friars Hill,
Wicklow.