Sir, - Edward D. Rafferty is quite correct (October 14th): it would be hypocritical for opponents of NATO's "naked aggression during the Balkan conflict" to remain silent while Russia perpetrates something similar in Chechnya (and elsewhere in the Caucusus).
Such aggression is indeed to be condemned unreservedly, all the more so as Russia will shortly be one of our partners in that "Partnership for Peace" into which Mr Ahern and his cohorts are frog-marching us. Indeed I am waiting with bated breath for a muscular response from our other new partners in this noble venture, although I recall that the most powerful among them were full of praise a few short years ago when that great democrat Boris Yeltsin turned the tanks on his own parliament. - Yours, etc., Raymond Deane,
Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.