Letter: Military intervention, not dithering, is needed in Yugoslavia

Sir: Since we all know that human motives are, at best, mixed, speculation about the motives behind any action is largely irrelevant, and nit-picking over President Mitterrand's splendid initiative does not detract from its splendour. Most normal people have been desolated by accounts of the suffering - suffering by the Serbs as well as others - and for the sake of humanity it would be good to think that there is at least one politician who is normal.

There must be others in this grey little land of disapprovers who welcome this move by a true statesman. France has never taken a simplistic view of the conflict, and probably only a French statesman can talk to both, or all, sides, with any hope of being heard over the booming of the guns.

Long live the Flamboyant Gesture. May it inspire our timid lot to notice that there are real people on the other side of the Channel tunnel]

Yours sincerely,

ISOBEL HAWKING

Toddington, Bedfordshire

29 June