LETTER : The only way to build lasting peace in Croatia

From Mr George Tintor

Sir: The Croatian expulsion of 15,000 Serbs from western Slavonia this week marks the end to centuries of Serb existence in this region of former Yugoslavia. It also brings the Croats a step closer to realising their long-held goal of creating an ethnically pure state.

The programme of cleansing Serbs from Croatia began in 1941, when the Nazi-backed Ustasha regime exterminated 700,000 Serbs, many of whom perished at the Jasenovac death camp. In 1991, the Croats managed to kill or expel most Serb inhabitants from western Slavonia.

The few remaining Serbs concentrated in the UN Protected Area in western Slavonia - an enclave in which ethnic Serbs constituted a pre-war majority.

It is a disgrace that as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the defeat of Nazism, a German ally, Croatia, is able to complete a racist project initiated during the Holocaust.

Yours faithfully,

GEORGE TINTOR

London, EC3