NATO's action not ethical

I refer to Gwynne Dyer's NATO wages ethical war in Kosovo in The Jakarta Post's May 7 edition. Nobody would be happier than NATO itself if the title of Ms. Dyer's article was true, but alas it is not. To start with, NATO does not even admit it is at war with Yugoslavia. They call it "a punitive action against Milosevic". They call it "humanitarian intervention". Most commonly they call it "a strike", as if NATO is a sort of trade union. In fact, they call it anything but war. I am not a legal expert so I don't know why NATO seems to be so shy to call something by its real name, but I suppose it has something to do with legality. So much for the "war" part of "ethical war" in Ms. Dyer's article.

Now to the "ethical" part. NATO has killed more than 1200 men, women and children and maimed and wounded more than 5,000. NATO has cut electrical power and water supplies to almost all of the population. NATO has destroyed beyond repair between US$40 billion and $80 billion worth of buildings (not sparing schools, TV and radio stations and factories), roads, bridges, electrical railroad and other infrastructural features. The extent of damage on a small country like Yugoslavia is devastating. Yugoslavia is being reduced to rubble.

If the war was to stop today, it would take 40 years of hard work and sacrifice to rebuild the country back to its pre-NATO level, and that level was already at a low due to 10 years of economic sanctions.

So, don't talk about NATO's altruism, but help put a stop to their killing and destruction. It is neither legal nor ethical.

BRANIMIR SALEVIC

Jakarta