Subject: From TRANSNATIONAL - Satyagraha - 25 April 1994 - No. 0
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Fortnightly Newsletter of the Radical Party
THE INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR WAR CRIMES COMMITTED IN THE FORMER
YUGOSLAVIA FINALLY BECOMES OPERATIVE
In January 1993 the Radical Party urged the Italian Government to form a
Committee that would draw up and present to the UN a draft statute for an
ad hoc Tribunal to prosecute war crimes in the Former Yugoslavia.
On 22 February 1993 the UN Security Council approved Resolution 808 with
which the ad hoc Tribunal was instituted; and issued a mandate to Secretary
General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, to present a proposal as to how the
Tribunal should actually be set up.
In April of that same year the Radical Party presented a petition
requesting that the Security Council speed up the formal institution of the
ad hoc Tribunal.
On 25 May 1993 the Security Council approved the Secretary General's
suggestions for setting up the tribunal with Resolution 827; the statute
excluded the application of the death penalty in any case.
In September '93 the UN General Assembly met; the election of the judges
and the Public Prosecutor of the ad hoc Tribunal was on the agenda, but
there was a risk that bureaucratic and diplomatic red tape would prevent
decisions being reached. The Radical Party then organized a second
petition, requesting that the Tribunal become operative before December
'93.
On 17 September the UN elected the eleven judges. The Public Prosecutor was
appointed at the end of last October.
On 2 November 1993 Emma Bonino, Secretary of the Radical Party, led the
delegation that presented the second petition to Boutros-Ghali in New York.
On 17 November last the Tribunal was solemnly inaugurated in The Hague. The
Italian judge Antonio Cassese was appointed as presiding Judge.
However, the Tribunal is still a long way from becoming fully-operational:
it is necessary to have the budget approved by the Fifth Committee of the
General Assembly, but it is still being opposed by a number of member
States. On 12 March Olivier Dupuis, President of the General Council of the
Radical Party, began a hunger strike to bring pressure to bear on the
members of the Committee, which was to last for 28 days! Hundreds of people
joined him in his act of satyagraha: citizens from 21 countries, including
20 parliamentarians. Thousands of people participated in this nonviolent
action by sending faxes and telegrams to New York and endorsing the request
asking the Fifth Committe to give their timely approval to the Tribunal's
budget, allotting a specific part of the overall UN budget to this item.
After months of hard work, the campaign was crowned with success. For the
first time the world has an institution with supranational jurisdiction:
war criminals can rest assured that they will be given a fair trial. In
this way, the Law proves that it is stronger than violence.
The definitive setting up of the ad hoc Tribunal for war crimes in the
Former Yugoslavia is the first step towards the institution of a permanent
International Tribunal for crimes against humanity. This was one of the
reasons why thousands of citizens participated in the Easter March held in
Rome on April 3. The March was promoted by the Radical Party, the Mayors of
Sarajevo and Rome, Caritas and "Hands Off Cain", the campaign to abolish
the death penalty worldwide by 2000; and was led by the Mayor of the
Bosnian capital, followed by gonfaloniers carrying the banners of dozens
and dozens of cities that formed the "There's no Peace without Justice"
Committee.
The Easter March both launched and strengthened the campaign for the
institution of the permanent International Court, and the one for the
moratorium on all executions as a function of the complete abolition of the
death penalty worldwide before the end of this century - just a few years
away now.
The success of these campaigns is in everyone's hands, as are the civil and
parliamentary initiatives outlined in the motions that follow.
In a letter received a few days ago by Emma Bonino, Secretary of the
Radical Party, Ambassador Paolo Fulci, Italy's permanent representative at
the UN, wrote: "...The Chairman of the Fifth Committee of the General
Assembly spoke to me the other day of the incredible number of faxes that
had been received..."
