Yugoslav Election

* Re “He Lost; Now He Should Go,” editorial, Sept. 26: I am not sure how anyone can claim to know who won, or should have won, the recent elections in Yugoslavia. It would seem to be a basic principle of democratic fairness that governments should not fund political parties in other countries. So why is our government giving money to certain political parties there?

What if, for example, the Canadian government were to give the Republican Party, say, a billion dollars and the Republicans won our upcoming elections. Would anyone here call that a fair election? Would the Democrats respect the Republicans’ claim to victory? No way; they would have the election thrown out.

So why, then, does anyone claim that the Yugoslav opposition’s claim to victory is valid? And now the U.S. government wants to spend another $500 million to buy the outcome of a runoff. If we were serious about democracy in Yugoslavia and in the rest of the world, we would quit trying to buy other people’s elections.

RICHARD CURTIS

Rancho Cucamonga