Madam - Your Editorial of July 6th, "Darfur disaster demands response", is an accurate portrayal of the humanitarian disaster in that region of Sudan. I was particularly pleased that you have called for sanctions to be imposed to ensure that peace is brought to the area.
The response of Kofi Annan and Colin Powell has been extraordinarily late, but at least they are now making the right noises. What is needed now is real action - the threats must be acted upon by the international community. In other words, the Khartoum government, if it does not deliver the peace that is necessary for the aid community to operate, must be forced to do so.
In the past the international community has always been shy about enforcing its threats; this time the lives of 2 million people depend on it. Organisations such as ours can do their bit but the scale of the problem is so vast that we cannot be left to pick up the pieces. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN O'SHEA, GOAL, PO Box 19, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Your Editorial highlights the uselessness of the United Nations - a body that acts only after thousands of innocent children have died in this terrible region.
This war has being going for some time now, the whole world knows about, but the body which represents the so-called civilised community fails again. - Yours, etc.,
PAUL DORAN, Monastery Walk, Clondalkin, Dublin 22.