Thanks to JB Pun Magar for his chilling expose on the situation of children in armed conflict in Nepal ('Giving children a fighting chance', #227) and your editorial ('Class struggle'). This investigative report makes it painfully clear that whatever the Maoists may say about children joining them voluntarily, recruitment of children and targeting the education system is an integral part of their revolutionary strategy. No one will deny that Nepal's education system, like society itself, is skewed in favour of the historically privileged groups. And this crisis needs to be addressed in order to find a long-term solution to inequity. The school system needs to at least distribute opportunities more fairly through access to education. This is not happening, and this is the frustration that the Maoists are cashing on. Even so, it is no excuse to destroy the only chance Nepali children have to live a normal childhood to learn and grow up in an environment without coercion, threats, intimidation and violence. Having now spent some years away from Nepal, your coverage of children caught in the crossfire is an indication of just how bad things have got in the land that we love.

Joyce Schiller, Geneva