A SHAMEFUL DEATH

ONE WOULD THINK OUR WORLD COULD never produce such a horrible story as the one about young Elisa Izquierdo, who was beaten to death by her mother Awilda Lopez [COVER STORIES, Dec. 11]. Surely all who read about her will wonder how anyone could be so cruel and inhuman. The answer is simple: drug abuse and lack of personal responsibility. That child should have been taken permanently from her mother at birth, when it was clear that Lopez was unfit to care for Elisa. Until we clean the streets of drugs and hold people responsible for their actions, these pathetic tales will continue to be told. May Elisa finally find peace, and may Lopez find the severest punishment available under law. MICHAEL B. DOPP Farmington, Connecticut

TEARS CAME TO MY EYES AS I WAS READING about Elisa's fate. If something so cruel happened in a country like the U.S., which can afford a web of social institutions such as the Child Welfare Administration, homeless shelters and the Legal Aid Society--even though they were unable to save Elisa's life--try to imagine what is taking place in countries like mine, where even a pale shadow of that support system is an unreachable dream. DOMINGOS FERNANDO REFINETTI Sao Paulo, Brazil

AS A TEACHER AND PSYCHOLOGY GRADUate who has worked with children for 40 years, I know the child always loves the parent, even if that child is being neglected or mistreated. When a child begs not to be returned to her mother, something is certainly terribly wrong. Please listen to the children. Elisa's pain and humiliation were heartbreaking. SURVIVOR OF CHILD ABUSE Gloucester, Ontario

IF THERE IS BUT A SHADOW OF A DOUBT that a child is being abused physically or mentally, no effort should be spared to ensure that child's safety. People must be exhorted by all means possible--legislation, ongoing public-awareness campaigns or whatever it takes--to denounce the mistreatment of children. As the mother of a six-year-old, I am numb with sadness thinking that other poor sweet children like helpless Elisa are still living in hell on earth. CATHERINE F. ST.-AMANT Montreal

I WENT TO WORK THIS MORNING. AS I dropped off my five-year-old son at school, I kissed him goodbye for the day and thanked God that I had a beautiful boy and a good job. I was a heroin and methadone addict for eight years, but I was smart enough not to have children back then. I figured that if I couldn't help myself, I had no right to bring a child into the world to include in my suffering. I'm 13 years clean. When I saw Elisa's face on your cover, I was horrified. I am taking a special lunch hour today. I will pick up my son at school and take him out for his favorite lunch and hold him. NAME WITHHELD ON REQUEST Chicago

LITTLE ELISA IS ANOTHER SAD EXAMPLE of the many shameful deaths that occur across the U.S. Many children whose lives are nightmares go unnoticed and don't have a prince in their lives to help bring their stories to the public eye, as Elisa did in Prince Michael of Greece. How many tiny victims have been hushed by the inadequacies of the system? How many battered women have ended up dead, their muffled cries for help unheeded? How many more unnecessary deaths will it take for the voices of the abused to be heard? Why does it take the torture and death of a little princess for America to take notice? KATHLEENE KEIDEL Buena Vista, Colorado

REGARDLESS OF THE SHORTCOMINGS OF the CWA, I place most of the blame for Elisa's death on people in the neighborhood who knew this family. Awilda Lopez, a brutish beast of a woman who unmercifully abused Elisa and beat her to death, could not have got away with this if someone had stopped by to question and report her as many times as was necessary to get the child away from her mother. We are all our brothers' and sisters' keepers. We cannot wait for someone else to do the right thing. If we see something that is wrong with a child, we must not wait for the social safety net to catch her. It might have a tear in it. TODD M. HACKETT Wauconda, Illinois

I AM APPALLED BY THE WAY YOU HAVE used one exceptional case to serve as an indictment of the entire nation's child-welfare systems. Instead of presenting a scholarly discussion of the current child-care crisis, with appropriate reference to relevant statistical information, your article plays to the emotions of your readers by re-creating in graphic detail the horrible tragedy of this poor child's needless death.

As an attorney who has represented mothers, children and the state in protective proceedings, I know all too well that there are no easy solutions to the problem of child abuse. I have witnessed firsthand the drawbacks of overzealous protection of children. Separating a child from a parent can have a devastating effect upon both parent and child. Until we are certain that a parent presents a true danger to a child, we must continue to promote the preservation of the family. When a child like Elisa falls through the cracks, we should be careful to place the blame where it is truly deserved--on the person who has abused the child. DONALD V. LINKE Wauwatosa, Wisconsin

ATTEMPTING TO REFORM PARENTS, AS was done in Elisa's case, puts the children at further risk. Our system supports an adult's right to procreate and procreate again--regardless of ongoing substance addiction, unwillingness to work or proven abuse to children--but holds society responsible for the children. There is a problem with this thinking: money cannot buy parenting. Elisa's mother initially abandoned her, and Elisa's mother ultimately murdered her. JEAN G. HOLLOWELL Chapel Hill, North Carolina

FOR ANY SIX-YEAR-OLD TO BE MURDERED is a shame. However, America does not have a duty to protect children from their parents. The family has a duty to safeguard its own members. The girl should not be "let down by the system" because there should be no system, child welfare, court or otherwise. As a family-law attorney, I must support the right of parents to see their children under the basic concepts of American rights and freedoms. No system should interfere with this, and none can protect a child from its own parent. Final responsibility lies with the family, not with society. WILLIAM B. ADAIR JR. Humble, Texas

THANK YOU FOR PUBLISHING LITTLE Elisa's sad story and for exposing the grave injustice that agencies such as the Child Welfare Administration in New York City do little children. The cwa is not held accountable for its actions or failure to act. It is time that such agencies and the courts broadened their awareness to include what is really important: a child's best interests. Elisa, a youngster with the potential for a bright future, could be alive today if someone had cared enough. Why do we reunite children with their families when we know the youngsters are in grave danger? LISA BROOKS Portage, Michigan

CONTRADICTORY PEACEKEEPING

DESPITE OCCASIONAL REFERENCES TO the U.S. military's role in the Balkans as a mission of peace [BOSNIA, Dec. 11], it is abundantly clear that the preoccupation with U.S. world leadership, nato's credibility, robust rules of military engagement, use of overwhelming force and the like have made genuine peacekeeping in Bosnia a secondary issue. This does not augur well for either its short-term or long-term success. IGOR D. RADOVIC New York City

ALTHOUGH I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A PACIfist, I feel that President Clinton is right. He had no choice but to send troops to help end the massacre in Bosnia. If the U.S. had taken steps against Hitler in the late 1930s, perhaps the lives of millions of innocent people might have been saved. Cruel dictators must be stopped before they damage the world. We must learn that all people have to live in peace with one another. HANNA CASSEL Napa, California

THE U.S. ARMED FORCES HAVE OFTEN INterfered with problems when they should not have. But in this case they are entering a war in which people do need their help. If it were not for the U.S. intervention, the slaughter of innocents would continue. FRANK FLORES Bethany, Oklahoma

INVESTCORP RESPONDS

INVESTCORP IS PROUD OF ITS HARD-earned reputation for business and financial success and, more important, for its unquestioned integrity. That is why we were shocked by the report "All That Glitters" [BUSINESS, Nov. 6], unfairly attacking us. Two examples: the article states that Investcorp stands accused of serious misconduct in a lawsuit involving the Circle K Corp., noting that the case received almost no public attention. In fact, the case was covered in the press and disclosed to investors in the Circle K prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. TIME also alleges that the purchase of slow-moving inventory from Chaumet, one of our operating companies, by another company, Lausanne Investments, was somehow improper. In fact, such bulk sales of stale merchandise for subsequent liquidation, the intention of which is to avoid disrupting the core business, is a standard practice in the jewelry industry. Both companies are owned by the same shareholders, who were all fully informed of the inventory-liquidation program. By publishing this ill-conceived article, Time has done both itself and its readers a gross disservice. LAWRENCE B. KESSLER, General Counsel Investcorp London

PROTECTION FOR TIBETAN CULTURE

SO THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT IS TRYING to break into the soul of Tibet by making its own selection of the Panchen Lama, the second highest religious leader in Tibet [CHINA, Dec. 11]. This, no doubt, is similar to actions Hitler would have taken had he won the war. He would have subjugated Italy and attempted to destroy the Vatican, representing as it did a powerful competing entity. Failing to snuff out the devotion of European Catholics, the dictator would probably have tried picking cardinals and Popes as the next best thing. We can only wish the Chinese no luck at all in this outrageous effort to assert their power over the life of Tibet. DAVID WREN Bloomington, Indiana Via E-mail

CHANCES ARE GOOD THAT CHINA HAS resorted to outright kidnapping of the legitimate Panchen Lama and made its own choice in order to control the independence drive of the Tibetan people. We must not forget that China has occupied Tibet. If the U.S. is to be the moral conscience of the world, it must address this issue with China. The Tibetan culture is unique, and it would be an incalculable loss to have it disappear forever. SABIR HASAN New York City Via E-mail