Subject: (2) from THE RADICALS AND NONVIOLENCE
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OSIJEK, 1991
- [...] On the night of 31 December 1991, the parliamentarians Marco
Pannella, Roberto Cicciomessere, Alessandro Tessari, Lorenzo Strik Lievers,
the members of the Federal Council of the Radical Party Olivier Dupuis,
Lucio Bert and Josip Pinesic, unarmed, joined the Croatian defence forces
at three points along the battle lines. Some of them will also reach the
stations of the international brigade, whose commander, Edoardo, is a
member of the Radical Party in Budapest. Renato Fiorelli, a member of the
city council of Gorizia and a trained nurse, will offer his services to the
military hospital of Osijek, which has so far been one of the main targets
of the Serbian artillery. Marco Pannella, in his role as European deputy,
has met the European Community observers currently in Osijek.
Tomorrow, 1 January, Marco Pannella will proceed to Nova Gradiska, which is
currently undergoing violent bomb attacks. (1) -
"I am wearing the uniform of the Croatian army, as a material and symbolic
action, as a political and civil action, because the fight for the right to
life and the life of rights, of all of us, Serbians, Albanians,
Macedonians, Italians, Germans, French, Russians or English, of we
Europeans, of the inhabitants of the world, now hangs on the good use of
this uniform. As does the ideal and the hope for democracy and peace. I am
grateful and fraternally proud of this, evidently an act of faith and a
desire to honour us for that which the Radical Party of transnational and
transdivisional nonviolence stands for and is attempting to build in the
society of today.
If we are strong enough, a system of "brigades of nonviolence" will begin
to form from this initaiative, the embryo of the force of international
justice for the safeguard of the rights of individuals and peoples in the
world.
As a representative of the European people and the European Parliament,
with my Radical colleagues, deputies and activists, I am here against the
return in Europe of the shameful conduct of the 1930s, when cynicism and
pseudo-democratic leaders, then as now, allowed the affirmation of Fascism,
Naziism, and Communism, and the spread of wars and massacres. For the
uniform I am wearing today, it is my duty to give testimony to our presence
as Croatians, Europeans, and also soldiers.
I do so wishing the women and men of Serbia, in all the republics, wherever
they may live, and all their families, a year of liberty, democracy, peace,
tolerance, happiness and good health.
We respond with love and hope to those who would see them as aggressors,
oppressed, assassins or victims of assassination. From the trenches in
which we are spending the night and the days to come, we are fighting and
will continue to fight for them, too, despite the torture we are suffering,
of which they are instruments against their will.
[...] The exponents of nonviolence, the anti-militarists, the democratic
federalists, the Europeans, the internationalists, the people of good will
of the transnational and transdivisional Radical Party, claim the honour,
the pain and the joy of being on this front for a free Croatia, a free
Serbia, a free Kosovo, a free Macedonia, a free Bosnia Hercegovina, a free
Europe. Where there is liberty and democracy, there will be peace and
tolerance, justice and fraternity." (2)
(1) Press release announcing the initiative.
(2) Declaration-appeal by Marco Pannella.
