Bologna, 26 May, 1999

Statement of Olivier Dupuis, Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party

"The news about the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic and others responsible of Belgrade regime would, if confirmed, constitute a notable step forward towards a peace solution in the Balcans, a solution based on law and justice rather than on a spasmodical attempt to deal with deus ex machina of the war in the Former Yugoslavia.

The radicals, with Marco Pannella and Emma Bonino, struggle for years to deliver to the international justice the war criminals and Milosevic in particular. After the successes of the international campaigns for the establishment of the Ad Hoc Tribunal and the permanent International Criminal Court, the radicals have collected since the last summer over 200.000 signatures under the international appeal for the indictment of Milosevic. Moreover, last autumn our team of legal experts has conducted an investigation in the Balcans to reconstruct political responsibilities of Belgrade. If the news about the indictment of Milosevic is confirmed, it will mean a great success for all those citizens who have in these years expressed themselves with the radicals for an efficient solution of the conflict in the Balcans.

As it happened already with Karadzic and Mladic, the indictment of a responsible politician, this time with even greater responsibilities, will open the way not only to a change in the internal balances in Yugoslavia, but also to a change in the international balances. The indictment of Milosevic has to be followed now by the international arrest warrant and with the arrest; it will therefore be necessary for the international community as a whole to decide to take action to start guaranteeing the only prerequisite for peace: justice.

We hope that the Security Council, which has in 1993 established the Hague Tribunal, will now give a mandate to the international force for immidiate arrest of those indicted by the Prosecutor Arbour, and will put an end to the crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo".

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