This is why at the time so much effort was put into getting an appropriate resolution adopted. With the failure to do so, an attack on Iraq remained illegal. Iraq’s failure to conform with Security Council resolutions was not a sufficient justification, otherwise Israel would become a legitimate target.LESLIE PALMIER BathSir: Does it say something about the Attorney General’s opinion of the Prime Minister that he felt compelled to ask him for an “unequivocal” statement that Saddam Hussein was in breach of Security Council resolutions? Is he more used to getting the other kind?COLIN STANDFIELD London W7 Bushmen of Botswana Sir: Tilly Lavenas’s letter of 21 March suggests that a link exists between the relocation of the Bushmen in Botswana and diamonds and De Beers.Nothing could be further from the truth. Neither De Beers’ prospecting nor any mining activity would ever require the arbitrary relocation or removal of people or any community.

Indeed, at all our operations, we welcome the presence of local people to whom we can offer employment. I can also confirm that none of the prospects in the area currently show any sign of generating a viable deposit.De Beers has sought, and received, assurance from the Government of Botswana that its relocation policy is not linked to any past, present or potential mining activity in the area. The Government has given further assurance that the resettlement programme is designed to give the Bushmen access to health and educational services available to all other Botswana people. Whilst we acknowledge that the policy is controversial and may not be welcomed by all parties, this is the decision of the democratically elected Government of Botswana.RORY MORE O’FERRALL Director, External Affairs De Beers Group London EC1 Burmese teak Sir: We again enter the debate on “fair trade” (“Revealed: Sale of garden furniture in Britain is propping up a brutal regime”, 24 March) The answer to a scenario like this is never simple. They’ve been flooded out of house and home and now the Government is to spend millions rehousing them But they’re birds, not people. They are the black-tailed godwits that nest on the Ouse Washes in Cambridgeshire – wading birds that are as rare as they are stunningly beautiful. So now the Government – acting under obligations from EU law – is funding the purchase of land where they can find alternative nesting sites.It is to make up to £14m available over the next five years to buy large areas of farmland, which can be converted back into the wet grassland which is the natural breeding habitat for the godwits, and for other wading birds such as snipe, redshanks and lapwings.

The law is to be changed, but it will only apply to items looted during the Nazi era. But what of the hundreds of Ethiopian illuminated manuscripts looted from Magdala in 1868 by General Napier’s forces, many of which are in the possession of the British Library?ALEX HARRINGTON London W1 Date with destiny Sir: It is very numerological of Tony Blair to choose 5 May 2005 as the date of the general election, since it is 5/5/5. What a pity 6 June 2006 is not going to be a Thursday; if it had been I’m sure he wouldhave waited the full term, if only to scare the conspiracy theorists.JON MAY Sheffield. This all shows in its true light, once again, an economic and social system that forever causes the scapegoating and victimisation of the most oppressed and marginalised groups in society.BEN MALCOLM Bath Looted from Ethiopia Sir: The British Library has been compelled to return an Italian book to Benevento (report, 24 March).