TRANSNATIONAL FAX #32
Information bulletin on the campaigns of the Transnational Radical Party
Issue 32, February 26, 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 (BE)
* Published in English, Italian, French, Russian, and Spanish.
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in this issue:
- Kosovo: TRP presents a report on Milosevic's individual responsibility for the Kosovo conflict;
- ICC: The Preparatory Commission begins its session at the UNHQ in New York
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KOSOVO: EVIDENCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY OF PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC FOR WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY COMMITTED IN KOSOVO IN 1998.
AT RAMBOUILLET PRESENTATION OF THE REPORT ON THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE BELGRADE REGIME TO THE SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION FOR KOSOVO, M. WOLFGANG PETRICH. DOCUMENT AVAILABLE ON LINE (WWW.RADICALPARTY.ORG).
While the Belgrade regime denied the ICTY Prosecutor access to FRY territory, including Kosovo, a team of experts coordinated by No Peace Without Justice was able to travel to Kosovo and other parts of FRY, as well as the neighbouring countries of Macedonia and Albania, in October and November 1998, in order to conduct the necessary field research for the preparation of a report on serious violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL)in Kosovo.
The conclusions of the "No Peace Without Justice" dossier (an organization founded five years ago by prominent members the Transnational Radical Party such as Marco Pannella and Emma Bonino) on violations of IHL in Kosovo are very clear: the report establishes the individual criminal responsibility of President Slobodan Milosevic for the planning and conduct of the campaign by the Serb Ministry of Interior forces and the Federal Army and for the serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in Kosovo during 1998.
The report demonstrates the existence of a campaign organised from within the State structure of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which involved the widespread commission of violations of international humanitarian law. It emphasises the necessity of establishing the individual criminal responsibility of those persons within the political and military hierarchy of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia who have planned, ordered, instigated and executed a campaign of violence and terror within Kosovo, which has resulted in widespread suffering and destruction.
Any agreement reached in Rambouillet will not serve the purposes of peace and reconciliation without strong provisions concerning the access of the Prosecutor of the International Tribunal to Kosovo and the obligation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to provide her with full co-operation. In addition, all States must fulfil their duty of assistance to the International Tribunal by providing the Prosecutor with information of any kind that she might require in order to conduct a full investigation in Kosovo and bring to trial those persons responsible for the atrocities which have been committed. If such persons are not now held accountable for their criminal actions, there can be no peace in Kosovo, both immediately and in the years to come.
During the conflict in 1998, the persecution of the Kosovar population took the form of:
1. attacks on towns and villages inhabited by Kosovar civilians;
2. the killing and causing of serious injury or harm to Kosovar civilians, including women, children, the elderly and the infirm, both during and after such attacks;
3. the arbitrary selection, detention and imprisonment of male members of the Kosovar population during such attacks;
4. the coercion, intimidation and terrorisation the Kosovar population such that they abandoned their property and homes;
5. wanton and excessive destruction of civilian dwellings and other buildings;
6. wilful destruction of private property, including crops and livestock; and
7. the organised looting and plundering of civilian property.
It would be wholly artificial to seek to address the crimes committed in the Kosovo conflict without recognising that the primary actor, involved at all levels in the planning, ordering, instigation and execution of these crimes, was indeed the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. President Milosevic carefully selected those forces that were to be used in Kosovo and directly communicated his instructions and expectations to their commanders in the field.
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ICC: THE PREPARATORY COMMISSION OF THE ANNEX TO THE STATUTE BEGINS ITS WORK IN NEW YORK ON THE RULES OF PROCEDURES AND EVIDENCE AND ON THE ELEMENTS OF CRIMES. THE RADICAL CAMPAIGN TO END IMPUNITY CONTINUES.
New York, the first session of the Preparatory Commission of the International Criminal Court, will meet from February 16 to 26 to finalize the Annex to the Rome Treaty; the event was opened by UN Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan. In his opening speech Mr. Annan saluted Senegal's ratification of the Statute and praised the role of Non-Governmental Organizations for their active participation in the process of the establishment of the Court. Some 120 countries are participating in the negotiations, which will also discuss Aggression, a crime left out of the ICC Statute at the Rome Diplomatic Conference. The ICC, which jurisdiction covers War Crimes, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, will entry into operation when at least 60 countries will have ratified the Rome Treaty.
As part of its "Ratification Now" campaign No Peace Without Justice, the radical group founded to specifically follow juridical issues, is providing legal experts to four delegations: Bosnia and Herzegovina (vice-chair of the PrepCom), Senegal (first ratifier of the ICC Statute), Trinidad and Tobago (member of the Bureau) and Sierra Leone. More news on the PrepCom in the next issue of the TransFax.
