Sir, - I have sent the following message to Ivor Roberts, the British Ambassador to Ireland: "As a British citizen resident in Ireland I wish to express my deep concern for the people of East Timor. Their abandonment by the international community, including Britain, following the recent referendum in their territory represents a most shocking contempt for democracy and human rights.
"I feel certain that the vast majority of those who gave the government that appointed you such an overwhelming majority at the last general election will be equally horrified by the cynical expedience that its inaction in this regard reveals. "It might be thought that a government that is prepared to treat the democratic will of one minority population with such contempt could also, if it felt similarly threatened, fail to implement the will of the people as expressed in the referendum - held in that part of this island over which it retains control - that followed the Belfast Agreement.
"I request and urge you to convey these feelings to your political masters in London and to let it be known publicly that British residents in Ireland - whom you also represent - are concerned and outraged."
May I use the good offices of your newspaper to urge others to make similar representations? - Yours, etc.,
Clive Nunn, Ballyduff Mill, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny.