Subject: TRANSNATIONAL (13) - part 1 of 8
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X-Comment: The Transnational Radical Party List
THE UN OPENS ITS DOORS TO THE PARTY
LET THE EU OPEN ITS DOORS TO BOSNIA
Dear friends,
On 20 June, the transnational and transdivisional Radical Party was granted
Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status (first category) by the United
Nations. Our party is now therefore one of the 42 organizations in the
world to have been granted this prestigious and rare recognition. It is an
extraordinary event which endows us with new responsibilities: its
importance will soon be clear when - as a result of the status we have been
awarded - we will be able to intervene directly in the working commissions
of the UN by presenting our points of view, suggestions and projects on the
issues to which we have always devoted our efforts: the universal abolition
of the death penalty, the establishment of the Permanent Criminal Court,
international linguistic democracy, anti-prohibitionism on drugs, and the
liberation of Tibet. It is not, therefore, an honorary recognition, but a
lever for more incisive action...
We owe our thanks to those who have worked tenaciously in the last few
years for the achievement of this objective. In particular Emma Bonino, who
initiated the procedure when she was Secretary of the Transnational Radical
Party, and Marino Busdachin, who has been working for the last two years in
New York to give the party a foothold in America and in the United Nations,
and who has managed with intelligence and passion to bring this difficult
task to conclusion.
We have, however, also been busy on other fronts. On the question of
Bosnia, with the European deputies in the Forum for the Prevention of
Conflicts, we organized a demonstration in support of the proposal for
Bosnia to join the European Union, on the occasion of the Council of Europe
in Cannes on 26 and 27 June. The demonstration, held in the square in front
of the building where the summit was taking place, was attended by 300
people from Spain, 100 from Italy, and about 100 from France and other
European Union countries, while a further 100 members of the Transnational
Radical Party from Bosnia, Croatia and Italy were turned back at the border
between Italy and France.
Thanks to the TV pictures of our nonviolent demonstration, we hope that
many other European citizens were able to become aware, for the first time,
of a proposal which we have now been working on for many months, and which
has also been backed by over 500 parliamentarians.
On the occasion of the summit, a delegation of European deputies and the
Secretary of the Radical Party were received by the President of the
European Council, Jacques Chirac, and the French Foreign Minister, Herve'
de Charette. Although the results of the meeting were disappointing, it
allowed us to bring the proposal into the public eye: a proposal which, in
view of the conclusions reached by the Cannes summit on the issue, seems to
us increasingly to be the only possible path, the only path which can allow
Europe to be politically present as such.
Two major successes, therefore. Balanced, however, as I am obliged to point
out, by our continuing financial difficulties, in the light of which it is
hardly necessary for me to repeat, to all those who have still not joined
the Transnational Radical Party for 1995, how much their support and their
membership is essential if we are to continue to win our battles.
Best wishes,
Jean-Franois Hory
President of the transnational Radical Party
Member of the European Parliament
