TRANSNATIONAL FAX N.30
Information bulletin on the campaigns of the Transnational Radical Party
Issue #30 29 January, 1999
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* Editor's Office: Mihai Romanciuc, Via di Torre Argentina 76, 00186 Rome (IT)
Tel : +39-06-689.791
Fax : +39-06-6880.5396
E-Mail: radical.party@agora.stm.it
URL : http://www.radicalparty.org
Telnet: agora.stm.it
* Printing and Distribution: Alberto Novi (B)
* Published in English, Italian, French, Russian, and Spanish.
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in this issue:
- MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGN: 1,100 MEMBERS IN 3 WEEKS
- KOSOVO: APPEAL FOR MILOSEVIC'S INDICTMENT WILL BE PRESENTED TO THE ICTY
- KOSOVO: RUGOVA CHOOSES 3RD OPTION: POLITICAL PARALYSIS
- ICC: SENEGAL RATIFIES THE ROME TREATY
- DRUGS: TRP CONCERNS ON UNDCP NEW OFFICE IN IRAN
- ANTIMILITARISM: DECISIONS OF THE MOSCOW RADICAL MEETING
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JOIN THE RADICAL PARTY FOR 1999!
Thanks to the membership campaign launched at the beginning of the year, over 1,100 individuals have become members of the Radical Party for the year 1999. It is an encouraging start, but these numbers are not enough to continue our international involvement.
This year can mark several important and historic stages of international decision making: from the finalization of the annex to the International Criminal Court's Treaty to the establishment of a moratorium of capital executions, from a new frontier in the effectiveness of the Geneva Commission on Human Rights to the opening of a new season for the International Criminal Tribunals. All these initiatives, together with our antiprohibitionist proposals and other ad hoc campaigns that we have set as our priority goals for the coming months, will need a tremendous international effort.
All these priorities need a lot of resources in term of people's involvement and money. We need you to become a member, a militant, willing to spread the word around in your community or through the internet about us and our initiatives; we need you to send us contributions on specific campaigns, we need you to give us suggestions. This year we want to hold a major international Congress to evaluate 10 years of transnational politics and to set the path for the future.
Fill in the form that you will find at the end of the transfax, enroll, pledge a contribution!
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INDICTMENT OF MILOSEVIC: 100.000 PEOPLE ASK THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA TO TRY YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT. OVER 1.000 MPs AND PERSONALITIES HAVE SIGNED THE RADICAL PARTY APPEAL.
Monday, February 1 at 12 a.m. a delegation of signatories of the Radical Party Appeal calling for the indictment of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for crimes against humanity will hand over the first 100.000 signatures collected around the world to Graham BLEWITT, the Deputy Prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal.
Over 1.000 members of parliaments and personalities of various countries are among the signatories, including former Prime Ministers Michel ROCARD, Wilfried MARTENS and Leo TINDEMANS, the President of the Foreign Affairs Committe of the Italian House of Representatives Achille OCCHETTO; Belgian MPs Alain DESTEXHE (PRL), Philippe MAHOUX; (vice-Chairman of the Senate), British MP Paul FLYNN (Labour); the vice-Chairman of the Parliament of Azerbaidjan Arif RAGIM-ZADE; Eurodeputies Otto VON HABSBURG, Hedi D'ANCONA, Antoinette SPAAK, Carole TONGUE, JosT Maria MENDILUCE, Doris PACK, Karl HABSBURG-LOTHRINGEN, LTonie VAN BLADEL; Albanian Prime Minister Pandeli MAJKO; Marco PANNELLA and the leader of Croatian opposition Zdravko TOMAC. Other world personalities include: French writers AndrT GLUKSMANN and Ismail KADARE, Marie-Claire MENDES-FRANCE, Anatolij PRISTAVKIN, Morton ABRAMOVITZ, Enzo BETTIZA, Nino MANFREDI, Bianca JAGGER and Annamaria GUARNIERI, the photographer Oliviero TOSCANI and Carla FRACCI.
Check our website for the complete list.
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KOSOVO: IN HIS INTERVIEW WITH ALBANIAN MAGAZINE KOHA DITORE OF PRISHTINA, TRP SECRETARY QUESTIONS RUGOVA LEADERSHIP ROLE.
Abstracts of an interview given by Olivier Dupuis to Koha Ditore last January 19. "[...] I am a member of a Party that promotes nonviolent reactions, but we didn't see any leader in Kosova - someone who would organize the population in a nonviolent resistance - [...] for sure not Rugova [...] We think, like Gandhi, that in politics you have three options: nonviolent options, violent options and a third category which in the case of Kosovo is the political paralysis, the one chosen by Rugova.
"Rugova's leadership has done nothing during all these years in Kosova, his passive policies, which were not active resistance, have enabled Milosevic to create today's apartheid system in Kosova."
Complete text of the interview on our website www.raidicalparty.org
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ICC: AFRICA BEATS EUROPE! SENEGAL IS THE FIRST COUNTRY TO RATIFY THE STATUTE OF THE PERMANENT COURT. THE TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY AND NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE CONGRATULATE PRESIDENT DIOUF.
Senegal is the first country that will ratify the ICC Rome Treaty. With this important achievement Senegal indicates to the rest of the world, and to Europe in particular, the path to be followed for the immediate entry into force of the permanent International Criminal Court, an institution that will come into operation when at least 60 countries will have ratified the Statute. The ICC will have jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The Transnational Radical Party and No Peace Without Justice commend President DIOUF, Foreign Minister BAUDIN and the Senegalese Parliament for having accelerated the bureaucratic procedures of the ratification and for having set the example for the rest of the international community.
Less than a year ago in DAKAR, President Diouf and European Commissioner Emma BONINO were debating the issue, along with other 25 African governments, at a Conference organized by the Senegalese Government and No Peace Without Justice.
The tragedies of Kosovo and Sierra Leone, of Congo and Angola should serve as a stimulus for the prompt coming into operation of the International Criminal Court. Governments and Parliaments can, and must, do all is in their powers to speed up the ratification process and end impunity for war criminals.
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UN/DRUGS: UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL DRUG CONTROL PROGRAMME OPENS NEW COUNTRY OFFICE IN TEHRAN. WILL THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS BE A PRIORITY IN UNDCP'S ACTIVITIES IN THE COUNTRY?
In order to boost cooperation in the common fight against production, trafficking and abuse of illicit drugs, the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) has set up a new country office in Tehran, IRAN.
Radically disagreeing with the overall UNDCP's strategy on demand reduction and crop eradication programmes, the Transnational Radical Party hopes that in signing the Memorandum of Understanding, Mr. Pino Arlacchi, Executive Director of UNDCP has foreseen al the necessary safeguards to insure that, in the implementation of the Agency's projects, a particular attention be paid to the respect of fundamental human rights in IRAN.
The Transnational Radical Party believes that the 'loss' of "more than 2,000 people over the past 20 years in the fight against illicit drug production and trafficking" as stated in yesterday's UNDCP's press release, is the result of the War on Drugs, which has spread terror policies around the world against producers, dealers and consumers alike. A war that has caused more arms than benefits.
Finally, the Transnational Radical Party calls on UNDCP to insure equal access for both sexes to all the educational and prevention programmes in demand reduction launched in the region by the agency.
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ANTIMILITARIST RADICAL ASSOCIATION'S SECOND CONGRESS HELD IN MOSCOW LAST WEEK. MEMBERS LAUNCH A NATIONWIDE CIVIL CAMPAIGN FOR THE ABROGATION OF THE MILITARY DRAFT AND CALL FOR A TRANSITION TO A PROFESSIONAL ARMY
ON 16-17 January, the Antimilitarist Radical Association (ARA) held its second Congress in Moscow at the Andrey Sakharov Museum & Public Center "Peace, Progress, Human Rights". Some 50 members of ARA, as well as other antimilitarist militants participated in the event. Also Olivier Dupuis, MEP and Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party arrived from Brussels to be present at the Congress. ARA is an autonomous part of the TRP.
Congress participants paid a minute of silence to the memory of Galina Starovojtova, member of the General Council of ARA assassinated in St. Petersburg on November 20, 1998. Members of the State Duma Anatolij Golov (Jabloko) and Jurij Parshakov (LDPR), as well as Father Gleb Jakunin, co-President of Democratic Russia Movement, addressed the Assembly.
In his intervention, Secretary of ARA, Nikolaj Khramov, reported on the campaigns and initiatives of the association during the last two and a half years. ARA's previous motion had mandated the organization to set the prompt adoption of a democratic and liberal law on alternative civilian service as its political priority.
Valerij Borscev, member of the State Duma (Jabloko) and President of ARA, presented the initiatives undertaken at the State Duma by him and his like-minded colleagues during the last two and a half years, initiatives aiming at the prompt acceptance by the Duma of a federal law on alternative civil service.
Olivier Dupuis, who in August launched a similar campaign in Italy, emphasized that the political and organizational support of the Radical Party to Russian antimilitarists will continue. According to Mr. Dupuis a campaign for the abrogation of conscription and a transition to a professional army should become the political priority for Russian Radicals in the next months.
On Sunday participants voted the Congress General Motion in which they launched a "nationwide campaign for the abrogation of conscription and a transition to a voluntary (professional) principle of armed forces recruitment". The document also states that "the free, democratic, liberal and prospering Russia based on the rule of law, to which we all aspire, should have an effective, professional, and radically reduced army, more appropriate both to real security needs and to the real economic possibilities of the country." The Congress acknowledged the financial and organizational problems that the organization faces, confirmed the charges and called for the convening of the 3rd Congress by the end of the year. For a more detailed account check www.radicalparty.org or email a.r.a@agora.stm.it
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SUBSCRIPTION FEES 1999: The subscription fes vary from nation to nation, according to the criteria of 1% of the PIL. They follow the fees relative to the distibution of the bulletin in the nations where it is most diffuse. For the missing nations, please contact the editorial office.
Albania 5 USD - Austria 2.400 ATS - Azerbajian 3 USD - Belgium 7.000 BEF - Bulgaria 8 USD - Canada 285 CAD - Czech Republic 27 USD - Croatia 35 DEM - Denmark 1.800 DKK - France 1.300 FRF - Germany 460 DEM - Hungary 27 USD -Ireland 78 IEP - Italy 365.000 LIT - Netherlands 370 NLG - Poland 23 USD - Portugal 11.600 PTE - Rumania 12 USD - Russia 19 USD - Slovenia 85 DEM - Spain 17.600 ESB - Switzerland 500 CHF - Ukraine 13 USD - United Kingdom 129 GBP - United States 260 USD.
