Sir, - Would it be undiplomatic to suggest that Moscow and Washington might have responsibilities towards the coffin-ship survivors picked up by the Tampa? The proxy war waged after the 1979 Soviet invasion set in train the devastation, famine and extreme Taliban reaction to the vicious predations of the protagonists of their Cold War.
The inhuman political reactions from Canberra and Djakarta are being rightly condemned, though we can be reasonably sure our own current regime would conform to the Australian, rather than the commendable New Zealand, stance if such a situation arose in our own waters. But should not the prime movers be hit with that fashionable buzz-word "accountability"? - Yours, etc.,
Damien Flinter, Church Hill, Clifden, Co Galway.