For where have modern nation states defined by ethnic identity been viable? They tend to rely on forced mass migration, murder, or, at worst, genocide for their establishment, and the domination of remaining minorities to maintain them. For the international community to recognise that it must engage with Bosnia for longer than one year is a step forward. However, losing sight of the vision of a single Bosnia must signify several steps back. The 1.8m people who have been displaced during the last four years have a right to return to their homes should they so wish. The challenge is how to create the conditions of physical and economic security which will allow people a genuine opportunity to exercise this right.To date, international policy has been conducted with an eye on the US electoral timetable, or underpinned by the desire to shunt refugees from countries of asylum back to Bosnia. Until the international community starts behaving as if it has a long-term commitment to a single pluralistic Bosnia, "ethnic cleansing" will be endorsed and the people of Bosnia remain short-changed.DAVID BRYERDirectorOxfam UK & IrelandOxford. Sir: You quote from Bill Buford's article in the New Yorker, in which he claims that "it is possible that narrative is as important to writing as the human body is to representational painting" ("Modern literary culture has lost the plot", 18 July). Surely this is not comparing like with like? I would argue that narrative is to writing what composition is to painting.

A painter may say that he is not interested in composition, just as a writer may say that he is not interested in narrative - but composition and narrative are still the fundamental component of each medium. As a progression of information, a piece of fiction can have a bad narrative or a dull narrative - but it cannot have no narrative, any more than a painting on canvas can ever have no composition. STEPHEN VOLKBradford on Avon,Wiltshire. Sir: Today peers have one last chance to decide whether it is right to remove all means of subsistence from asylum seekers who flee repressive regimes in fear of their lives and freedom to seek a safe haven in Britain. Citizens' Advice Bureaux know that fear, ignorance of procedures, natural anxiety and disorientation are among the many reasons why genuine asylum seekers may not apply for refugee status as soon as they set foot in this country. CAB have also seen at first hand the extent of the hardship caused by the withdrawal of benefits from asylum seekers in February. One London CAB, for instance, reported the case of an Iraqi couple with two small children.