Jonathan Freedland is right (We've avoided a Libyan Srebrenica, so when is the bombing going to stop?, 30 March). Western powers were right to take seriously Gaddafi's threat of door-to-door massacre of his opponents and act to stop it. Now they must stop him resuming action against territories held by revolutionaries, and provide the people in liberated territories with assistance.
Obama and Cameron should not revert to Bush-Blair-speak and abuse the UN resolutions to impose regime change, with its calamitous consequences, including undermining the renewed case for international humanitarian intervention. Instead, democratic change should be facilitated through diplomatic effort aimed at allowing all Libyan people to decide their own future under the auspices of the UN. In the process, Gaddafi will hopefully be toppled.
In the highly unlikely event that he morphs into Libya's first freely elected president, his fellow democratic leaders in the west should be able to welcome him into their ranks with greater eagerness than they displayed when he sat atop of one the world's most repressive regimes. The rest of us may view the spectacle with shock and awe, but as preferable to the shock and awe visited on the people of Iraq.
Mohammad Nafissi
Research associate, London Middle East Institute, Soas, University of London
• Your coverage of Moussa Koussa's defection (Blow to Gaddafi as Libyan foreign minister defects and flies to UK, 31 March) sheds further light on the plight of the Libyan people. Even as Mr Koussa is being sheltered, your report confirms what Libyan exiles have long stated: that Gaddafi's regime has been extremely adept at suppressing any public expression of opposition, and that a state of "near perpetual conflict and fear" extends even to those closest to him.
Yet there is little assurance that ordinary citizens will have access to a fair procedure to consider the refugee protection they may need. Political pressures to try to limit the numbers reaching Europe have drowned out vital discussions about safety and asylum.
Earlier this month, Asylum Aid wrote to the foreign secretary to stress that anyone fleeing Libya must have access to a full and fair refugee determination procedure. As Mr Koussa provides more details about the terror in which some Libyans have been forced to live, this call is increasingly urgent.
Maurice Wren
Director, Asylum Aid