Letters:

The real enemy

by Braxton M. Alfred

THERE are some discordant messages being delivered with regard to the Albanian refugees arriving in Canada.

On the one hand, the text invariably refers to the trauma these people have suffered. Specific statements about the brutality of their Serbian oppressors are typically part of the litany. But then every picture that appears is of beautiful, healthy, and happy children. There is something wrong with this. Is it possible that the press is uncritically parroting Nato and Albanian lies? One may argue that the refugees arriving here are not a representative sample. If so, then the selection policy which distributes respite only to those who do not need it is a bad one. More likely (to me) is that Axworthy and company feel the need to be seen as being on the side of the angels to draw attention away from the bloody hand.

What of the Serb refugees from the earlier war in Bosnia and Croatia? What of the graphically documented trauma being inflicted on Serb civilians daily? Has the demonization of this population proceeded to such a state that they are now mere inconveniences? Undoubtedly the refugee camps in Macedonia and Albania are squalid and soon will be swept with disease. But according to Anthony Daniels (Are we being fair to Macedonia? May 5) the presenting medical symptoms at the moment in the camps are "diseases of civilization." There certainly is no evidence that the refugees have suffered widespread systematic brutalization. However, whatever insults they experience have been manufactured by Nato. I am horrified that Canada is part of this, and I do believe that a good case can be made that all Nato leaders are guilty of crimes against humanity.

Braxton M. Alfred,
Assoc. Prof. Emeritus,
UBC, Vancouver

Our opinion

  WE share these sentiments wholeheartedly, and are pleased that a Canadian national newspaper has published the professor's letter.