RADICALS: CONSULTATIVE STATUS AT THE UN. THE COMMITTEE ON NGOs VOTES ON T HE RECOMMENDATION OF SUSPENSION.

THE DEFAMATORY RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN CONTINUES AGAINST FREEDOM OF SPEECH AT THE UNITED NATIONS.

New York, 29.09.00. After a turned on debate that last Wednesday engaged the 19 members of the UN Committee on NGOs, the French delegation, following the third answer of the Transnational Radical Party, affirmed that there were not enough elements to proceed against the TRP and it asked for a roll-call vote to agree upon a the punishment of a three years suspension adopted by the Committee in the month of June.

Germany, Romania, Chile and United States decidedly lined up with France, retaining exhaustive the reasons of the radicals and asking the withdraw al of the accusations and the closing of the case for lack of evidence.

Pakistan and Senegal abstained, while Algeria, Bolivia, Colombia, China, Cuba, Ethiopia, India, Lebanon, Russia, Sudan, Tunisia and Turkey voted against the proposal.

Despite the radicals had agreed to answer to a U.N. document that without any evidence or motivations recommended the suspension for 3 years of TR P's consultative status, the Russian Federation insisted with its unfounded and defamatory accusations that alleged the TRP's support of Chechen terrorists, the existence of proceeds coming from international narcomafias and the promotion of pro-paedophilia campaigns.

Declaration of Olivier Dupuis, Secretary General of the TRP and MEP:

"What happened yesterday, if on the one hand confirms the commitment to freedom of speech at the UN of the Europeans, the U.S. and Chile, on the other hand it confirms the approach that Putin's post-Soviet Russia has to the principles of fair trial and the right of defense. The decision to recommend a 3-year suspension of the PRT, if ratified by the ECOSOC next 18 October, it would create a dangerous precedent according to which any regime can, with no evidence whatsoever, request the withdrawal or the suspension of the consultative status of NGOs, which, like the PRT, fight for the international rule of law and the respect of the fundamental human rights.

"Ratifying this decision would mean to sustain the law of the force instead of the force of the law. It would also mean to impose silence on cases of systematic violations of lives and human rights, like the situation in Chechnya. Moreover, if the Russian calumnies would become a formal decision of the UN, it would mean that at the United Nations, those who dare to criticize the failures of the prohibitionist policies of the international community, will be treated as Mafioso international fora.

In the next weeks it will be necessary a big campaign both in Italy, to have the full support of Mr. Amato's Government, and internationally to counter the negation of the fundamental human right to freely express opinions at the United Nations."