Spain Throws a Line to Canada in Fish Fight

Spain Throws a Line to Canada in Fish Fight

Regarding the article ''Why Spain Confronts Canada in a Fish Fight,'' March 31, I would like to underline a few additional points:

*The Spanish trawler Estai was inspected by a European Union (EU) team as soon as the trawler returned to its home port in Spain. According to the report of British inspectors of the EU, Canadian claims about illegal catch and gear are false. Besides, this vessel underwent nine inspections by the North-West Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO, the international body that gets quotas in the region), Canada, and the EU in 1993, with only one minor infringement.

*After the seizure, the EU requested a meeting of the NAFO to reach a compromise with Canada on the share-out of quotas for Greenland hailbut and to avert further escalation of the dispute. But the meeting had to be postponed after Canada asked for a delay and now appears uninterested in resolving the problem within NAFO.

*Canada's illegal and unilateral actions came on the eve of a worldwide United Nations Conference to tackle the subject of highly migratory fish stocks.

*Spain has submitted a case against Canada at the main judicial body of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, over the illegal actions of Canada.

Let us hope that Canada, consistent with its tradition, accepts the judgment of the World Court and refrains from acting as it has done lately, harassing and seizing EU trawlers in international waters.

Juan Antonio Yanez-Barnuevo, New York

Permanent Representative of Spain to the United Nations

What are Lugar's politics?

In the opinion-page article ''Can Lugar Campaign Get Off the Ground?'' March 21, the author lauds the senator's credentials (e.g. valedictorian, Eagle Scout, Rhodes scholar), his knowledge in foreign and domestic affairs, and his personal charm.

There was no mention of Mr. Lugar's political positions and voting record.

While personal achievements in Boy Scouts, school, business, and local politics may be of some interest to your readers, I would like the Monitor to put more emphasis on political views and voting records.

Thomas Jerdee, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Why gun control doesn't work

The editorial ''Gun Law Cross-Fire,'' March 23, is misleading. It perpetuates the demonization of firearms and ignores several facts. First, crime rises where gun control is greatest and falls where the right to carry a concealed weapon is protected. Second, police do not prevent crime; they only enter the scene after the crime is committed and there is already a victim.

Third -- and most important -- only an armed populace can hold government tyranny at bay. Rather than deplore the ownership of assault weapons by citizens, why not deplore the unconstitutional use of military hardware by government agents against civilians? Massacres such as the ones in Waco, Texas, give ample evidence of government out of control. Citizens have a right to self-defense. Let's not give way to hysteria but remember that guns are neutral. Their use for good or evil lies in the hands of the possessor.

Jorie Blair Long, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Frustrated moms, dead-beat dads

I was disappointed that the Monitor didn't cover or comment on the television show ''Abandoned and Deceived,'' presented March 20th on ABC. With the prevalent problem of nonpaying, noncustodial parents, I am at a loss for the lack of coverage of this movie inspired by the life of Geraldine Jensen, the founder of the Association for Children and Enforcement of Support (ACES), a nonprofit national association dedicated to providing self-help information and advocacy for improved child-support enforcement.

I have been waiting 5-1/2 years for the state to do something about my ex-husband's refusal to pay monthly support and back support now totaling $76,000. I have just heard about and joined ACES.

More women need to know about ACES. Coverage of this organization might have informed many frustrated, discouraged women.

Kathleen C. Hodges, Barrington, N.J.