Information bulletin on the campaigns of the Transnational Radical Party

Issue 34, June 23, 1999

* Published in Italian, French, Russian, and Spanish.

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In this issue:

- Another international victory

- Our appeal to the Prosecutor Louise Arbour

- Indictment: a nonviolent victory

- Press conference in Rome

- No Peace Without Justice welcomes the announcement

- Full support to the declarations of Deputy Prosecutor Blewitt

- TRP insists on the release of Kosovar prisoners

- Taiwan gives 300 million dollars to Kosovo

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ANOTHER INTERNATIONAL VICTORY

On 27 May 1999, at 2 p.m., Ms. Louise Arbour, the General Prosecutor of International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, publicly announced her charges against Slobodan Milosevic, FRY President, Milan Milutinovic, Nikola Sainovic, Dragoljub Ojdanic and Vlajko Stojiljovic, other leaders of Belgrade regime. All those have been charged with CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY and VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW.

This special issue of our Transnational Fax is dedicated to the indictment.

The ICTY decision represents for us radicals a partial victory of our efforts of the last 15 years concerning the situation in Yugoslavia; a victory for more than 200.000 people who have been requesting Ms. Arbour to indict Milosevic through our international appeal launched ten months ago; a victory for the team of experts of No Peace Without Justice and TRP who have been collecting evidences for this indictment in the region; and last but not least, a step towards an effective system of a fair international Rule of Law not only in Kosova, but also in Serbia and in the Balkans, and especially on the international level.

The struggle must continue, the war has not yet finished. Milosevic and all those indicted have to be tried as soon as possible by the ICTY. It is up to the international community, the UN, the NATO and the EU, and each and every State to find the necessary political will not only to find a way to peace in the region, but also to bring war criminals to justice and ensure for them a fair trial.

Good reading and good work.

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KOSOVO/INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL: TRP APPEAL TO PROSECUTOR ARBOUR

On 25 May, Olivier Dupuis, Secretary General of the TRP, issued the following appeal to Ms. Louse Arbour, General Prosecutor of the International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY):

"As the rumours on the imminent resignation of Louise Arbour from the position of Chief Prosecutor of the ICTY grow every day more insistent - and not denied -, no day goes by that does not bring to light, through the mass media of the world, more gruesome testimonies of the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo by the serbian military and paramilitary forces.

A few days from her increasingly likely departure from the The Hague, I take the liberty, also on behalf of the more than 200.000 people that have signed our appeal for the indictment of Milosevic, to submit her a final appeal before she surrenders her high mandate with the Tribunal to issue an indictment and an international arrest warrant of the Yugoslav President for the crime against humanity of the deportation of more than one million civilians from their homes and for the thousands of war crimes and crimes against humanity that have accompanied it."

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INDICTMENT OF MILOSEVIC. RADICALS: NONVIOLENT VICTORY

Rome 26 May. As the information about the ICTY's intention to indict Milosevic penetrated unofficially to the public, Olivier Dupuis, Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party, has made the following declaration:

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

The radicals, with Marco Pannella and Emma Bonino, fought for years to deliver to international justice war criminals, and Milosevic in particular. After the successes of the international campaigns for the establishment of the Ad Hoc Tribunals and the permanent International Criminal Court, radicals have collected, since last Summer over 200.000 signatures on the international appeal for the indictment of Milosevic. Moreover, last Autumn our team of legal experts has conducted investigations in the Balkans to outline the political responsibilities of the Belgrade regime. The news of the indictment of Milosevic is 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 Balkans.

As happened with Karadzic and Mladic, the indictment of a politician, this time with an even greater responsibility, will open the way not only to a change in the internal balances in Yugoslavia, but also to a change in the international scenario. 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 and start working for the only prerequisite for peace: justice.

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

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INDICTMENT OF MILOSEVIC: DEMONSTRATION IN FRONT OF THE UN IN ROME

On 27 May, the day of the indictment of President Milosevic and other four leaders of the Belgrade regime for crimes against humanity, Marco Cappato and Paolo Pietrosanti, with other radical activists carrying banners with slogans like "Finally, Milosevic is indicted" and "Now, arrest Milosevic" held a press conference in Rome in front of the UN offices in Italy to express their satisfaction for the indictment, and to remind the international community its duty to follow this decision with concrete efforts to bring the indicted criminals to trial.

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INDICTMENT OF MILOSEVIC: NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE STRONGLY WELCOMES THE RECENT ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PROSECUTOR OF THE ICTY

Rome, 27 May 1999 - "Sergio Stanzani and Gianfranco Dell'Alba, President and Secretary General of No Peace Without Justice, express their great satisfaction about the announcement of the indictment of President Slobodan Milosevic by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

No Peace Without Justice has actively campaigned for a long time to bring about such an indictment in relation to crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia.

In October and November 1998, No Peace Without Justice conducted two investigative missions to Kosovo and other states of the former Yugoslavia, with a team of legal experts. The final report clearly demonstrates that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has jurisdiction over such crimes.

This report was made public on 18 February in Rambouillet, during the negotiations, and was sent to the Prosecutor of the International Tribunal in order to facilitate her investigations and contribute towards an indictment of those persons responsible for the crimes which have been committed in Kosovo, including President Milosevic.

In addition the European Parliament, thanks to an amendment tabled by MEP of the Radical Party, recently passed a resolution calling for the immediate indictment of President Milosevic and all other political and military leaders responsible for the atrocities committed in Kosovo, on the basis of the fact that the forced displacement of hundred of thousands of Kosovars is in itself a crime against humanity.

No Peace Without Justice urges Governments to support the International Tribunal, by providing any information in their possession relating to the crimes which have been committed in Kosovo.

Following the success of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, it is extremely important that an effective permanent international criminal court be established as soon as possible in order to deter future perpetrators of crimes similar to those committed in Kosovo.

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FULL SUPPORT TO THE DECLARATIONS OF THE DEPUTY PROSECUTOR OF THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL, GRAHAM BLEWITT. MILOSEVIC MUST APPEAR AS SOON AS POSSIBLE IN FRONT OF THE TRIBUNAL. THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY AND NATO HAVE TO GUARANTEE IN EVERY WAY THE SAFETY OF PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC.

Rome, 31 May 1999. In an interview to the German weekly "Der Spiegel", the Deputy Prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal, has stressed that the Tribunal will do everything possible in order that President Milosevic is arrested as soon as possible.

Declaration of Olivier Dupuis, Secretary of the Radical Party and Member of European Parliament:

"All the initiatives to guarantee the safety of Milosevic and the other persons indicted by the Criminal Tribunal have to be undertaken by the international community and first of all by the NATO. It is really fundamental that the process with Milosevic and with the others indicted takes place, and that it takes place as soon as possible.

It is fundamental to bring to the moment of justice all what happened in Kosovo, but also in Bosnia and in Croatia. It is fundamental for the victims. But it is as much fundamental for providing the citizens of the whole world with a moment of truth which allows them to realise on which complicity and on which support, inside the Yugoslav Federation but above all on the international scene, could the national-communist and assassin regime of Milosevic count to remain in power for over ten years and to be able to continue, generally undisturbed and for so long, the most cruel, bloody and racist policy that Europe could know since the end of the Second World War."