18/12/03

He must now answer for the deaths of over a million people in his wars with Iran and Kuwait, and for the hundreds of thousands of political opponents tortured and killed, particularly the victims of the failed 1991 uprising.

However, it must not be forgotten that the West helped him to power, encouraged him to attack Iran, supplied him with weapons and turned a blind eye to his use of chemical munitions. Also, having encouraged the Kurds and Shias to rebel, they then abandoned them to their fate, afraid that another Iranian-style fundamentalist regime might emerge.

Yes, Saddam must face justice, but so too must his accomplices, and they include senior Western politicians, intelligence agents and arms dealers. - Pete Winstanley, Durham.

DID anyone else notice Saddam's manicured fingernails? If he was living in a hole in the ground, how did he manage this? - I Dunn, Crook.

ONCE the euphoria over the capture of Saddam Hussein has died down it will be obvious the Iraqi problem will be with us for some time.

Let's not forget the excuse for going to war was to find weapons of mass destruction, not the capture of Saddam Hussein.

The trial is sure to last for several years as shown by the so-called trial of Milosovic in the Hague.

His defence is certain to point out that we armed Saddam to the teeth, especially during his war with Iran, and we did little to stop his persecution of the Kurds.

Turkey was also oppressing the Kurds and we stood by and did nothing.

As this sordid affair drags on through the courts (a lawyers' paradise) we may well be wishing we had left Saddam down the hole where he was found.

Finally, before we start throwing stones, let's remember that when the French and British treacherously betrayed the Arabs towards the end of the 1914-18 war, we bombed Damascus, killing thousands of Arabs and, surprise, surprise, we also used poison gas.

There will be egg on a lot of faces before the Saddam Hussein saga is concluded. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.

SPEED CAMERAS

VIOLENT crime against small business people is widespread and the frequency of incidents is increasing fast. It is estimated that seven out of ten shopkeepers have been the victims of crime in the past year.

The police confirm that 80 per cent of high street crime is drugs related, yet there are few measures in place to get drug addicts off the streets.

The motorist and most small business people are high mileage drivers and continue to be the easy target of the police 'safety cameras', known to most of us as 'speed cameras'.

The comments of Paul Garvin, the Chief Constable of County Durham, are refreshingly welcome. He said that "the speed camera issue is not a point of principle, it is in fact that they are pointless". This is why Durham's "intelligence-led approach" targets bad driving behaviour.

The issue is that urgent police action is needed to reverse violence on our streets. The additional resources needed could be obtained from ceasing the pointless activity to which one of the region's most senior police officers refers. Durham Constabulary's own crime statistics illustrate this point perfectly.

Mr Garvin may not be making many friends in Whitehall at the moment. However, when he addressed a well-attended meeting of business people earlier this month in Durham there was plenty of evidence that his understanding of what matters is upbeat. - Peter Troy, Chairman Darlington Branch, Federation of Small Businesses.

CONGRATULATIONS to Durham Constabulary chief Paul Garvin. Obviously a man of substance and high morals.

Being a life-long resident of Durham County, it is very reassuring to know Mr Garvin's commonsense approach to policing, particularly speed camera issues, will not be influenced by Government ministers in Whitehall, who have hardly set foot in our region, even less have any knowledge of our region's road safety record.

Credit where credit is due. Well done, Mr Garvin, I for one admire your firm stand. It's a shame many other leading public figures don't have the same high standards.

Durham Constabulary is held in high regard by other forces nationwide due to people like Paul Garvin leading the way. - Robert Bridgett, Shildon.

IMMIGRATION

I FIND it utterly amazing, beyond belief, that people in this country turned out in their droves to protest about the war in Iraq (rightly or wrongly).

It seems that these people will champion anyone's cause except their own.

They are so busy protesting about things that happen in far off countries - yet they do nothing while our own dear land is in such dire straits.

Our towns and cities are awash with illegal immigrants (they aren't all fleeing persecution), and also National Health tourists costing this country billions of pounds. All paid for by the tax payer.

There are surely enough people of our own who need help.

Whose country is this? It is like living in an alien land. Soon England will cease to exist. What happened to our cultures and our heritage? - Rachael Hunter, Stockton.

Teesside AIRPORT

ALL this hoo-ha about Teesside Airport. Why not go back to its real name "Goosepool"?

All the Canadian crews would be pleased. - M Kitching, Darlington.

AS regards a new name for Teesside Airport, how about Cleveland International? - GH Grieveson, Richmond.

Weardale WOLVERINE

HAVING read your report on The Weardale Wolverine (Echo, Dec 13) with great interest, I wonder is it not possible that the sighting was actually of a pine marten?

The given description and stated habitat is fitting and, whilst pine martens certainly aren't common in the British Isles, I suspect that there is a greater probability that the creature sighted was a pine marten rather than a wolverine, which is distinctively less ferret-like.

I could be wrong in my theory however and I do not dismiss out of hand the possibility that out-of-place animals may indeed prowl the British countryside. - A Paciorek, Howden-le-Wear.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

E Waterhouse (HAS, Dec 4) would like a bloodbath of so-called "human vermin" to satisfy a mood of feeling incensed - isn't it a good job that we have got an ordered legal system? Though this system is imperfect, it at least can give proper consideration to each case. E Waterhouse's letter suggested a travesty of 'law' which would be based only upon petulance, self-righteousness, spite and revenge.

If E Waterhouse would diminish and not increase the violence and misery in the world, would it not be better perhaps to start by looking inwards by first sorting out one's own 'incensed' feeling of violence and hate instead? - E Turnbull, Gosforth.