by Olivier Dupuis and Sandro Ottoni
The following pages describe some of the most important moments of the Radical Party's campaign against the Europe - E.C. Europe in particular - of shame and complicity with the army of the coupmongers and with the racist regime of Belgrade.
As you no doubt remember, at the conclusion of the first session of the Radical Party's Federal Council, held in Rome at the end of September, Marco Pannella announced his decision to undertake "an open-ended fast" to urge the recognition of the independence of Croatia and Slovenia, for the rights of the Albanian populations of Kosovo, against a European Community and an Italian policy heirs of the Europe of shame".
Following the text whereby in early October Pannella announced his decision to the press:
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MARCO PANNELLA ANNOUNCES HIS FASTING INITIATIVE
"Today the European Community is the heir of the Europe of cowardice and betrayal which, in the '30s, was the accomplice and the fomenter of fascism, nazism and, in the '40s and following years, of communism.
This Community is increasingly antidemocratic in its very structures, where Parliament is deprived of its natural functions, where the Executive is reduced to a bureaucratic moment, while the Twelve National States are demolishing the E.C. construction, turning Brussels into a sort of clearing house of their needs, where the interests and the vices of the traditional and frustrated chancelleries - the French and British ones especially - prevail.
The European Community, and the Twelve States it consists of, is today the accomplice of the criminal action of the so-called "Yugoslav" army; such army is a Bolshevik, racist, chauvinist army, in harmony with the authoritarian Serbian power of President Milosevic.
The Community has become the mediator between assailants and victims, between plotters and legalists, between racists and democrats, between assassins and victims.
In The Hague, Lord Carrington proved to act as the heir of that part of the British conservative world which, with Chamberlain, inspired and conducted the policy of Münich, and which, with Churchill, stated "If I were Italian I would be a fascist", which Stalin and his successors preferred to the Social Democrats and to the Labour Party "because of their realism". However, the Socialist International today is on the same positions. "Real democracy" is drifting away from democracy at a rhythm equivalent to the one, in certain moments, which existed between socialist humanism and "real socialism".
The transnational and transparty Radical Party denounces the complicity of Europe and Italy with the oppression of the Albanian populations of Kosovo, with the occupation of over 40% of the Croatian territory, with the racist troops that are now a few kilometres away from Zagreb, which have conquered a Mediterranean outlet for Serbia, which have destroyed historical centres of Dalmatia, Croatia, Istria, and which are providing a "model" to overcome "democratic disorder" also in other countries, in Rumania and in the U.S.S.R. itself.
The Radical Party denounces the behaviour of the Italian press which, in the editorials and articles of its correspondents, often endorses correct and just positions while other times it is devotes itself to disinforming, censoring, and sabotaging every concrete Italian and European political action coherent with those denunciations.
As far as I am concerned, I am resuming the nonviolent action of an open-ended fast for the recognition of the national sovereignty of Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, of the human, political, constitutional and democratic rights of the Albanian population of Kosovo".
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During his fast, Marco Pannella denounced the complicity (including the juridical one) of the European governments and of the European Community, asking the U.N. and the EEC - if necessary - as already for the Middle East, to enact a total embargo against the Serbian Republic".
Following is the text of the first address on 8 October during the European Parliament's debate:
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A EUROPEAN COMMUNITY WHICH IS THE HEIR OF THE EUROPEANS CHAMBERLAIN AND DALADIER
"Mr. President, (...) I have started a hunger strike, as a nonviolent militant, for the recognition of Croatia and Slovenia, but especially to do all that is possible to avoid the shame of a European Community which is becoming the heir of the Europeans Chamberlain and Daladier, the heir of those who supported Hitler to the end when he occupied the Ruhr, who supported the beginnings of real communism, of nazism and of fascism (...).
If I were not Gandhian, if I were not nonviolent, I would have taken up arms and gone to Yugoslavia to fight beside those who are assailed. As nonviolent I cannot do this, because I know that those who use weapons to kill will sooner or later also be a suicide. Therefore the only thing that I can do is to embody - with the apparent meekness of abstaining from eating food - the belief - which is the belief of my party - of feeling an intolerable shame for each of you, colleagues. We sit in a Parliament, members of a Community which acts as an umpire between assailant and victim, between murderer and murdered....Europe of shame, Community of shame..."
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On 10 October, Pannella spoke again during the European Parliament's debate on the situation in Yugoslavia:
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THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY IS THE ACCOMPLICE OF A COUP D'ETAT
"Italy (and the European Community) have become juridically accomplices of a coup d'ètat, of a massacre to the prejudice of all the citizens of former Yugoslavia.
They have given international representative and governmental dignity to them, and by interfering in the Yugoslav situation, to the criminal coupmongers.
With the order to suspend hostilities expressed "neutrally" to both parts, the assailants and the victims, instead of supporting and protecting the victims, the E.C. and Italy have directly contributed to enabling the coupmongers and the Serbian Republic which directs them and oppresses them, to occupy half of the Croatian Republic, to try to carry out the annexation which will represent the key of the "Serbian" violence and blackmail.
It is therefore necessary not only to immediately recognize the Republics which have democratically proclaimed their independence, but also to immediately recall our ambassador from Belgrade, deprive the "Yugoslav" representative of any faculty of representation at the United Nations, order the army of the coupmongers and the Serbian Republic to immediately withdraw within the Serbian borders, asking the U.N. and the E.C. - if necessary - as already done for the Middle East, to carry out a total embargo against the Serbian Republic".
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Pannella delivered a third address on 10 October, on the occasion of the statements of vote at the conclusion of the debate:
SHAME ON YOU!
"The behaviour of the Council and of the Committee has been clear-cut; they have been accomplices and cowards towards the aggressors; they have been equally coward and arrogant as regards the reasons of the victims.
A Parliament having a little self-respect should first of all judge what has been done, and then decide what to do.
If you really believe in what you say, you should have already proposed a vote of no-confidence to the Committee and should have attacked the Council, because the damage has for the most part been done. This Parliament, which is shaken every now and then by outbursts of good intentions for the future, but which systematically, thanks to our party and clan-like support, thanks to the decline in your ideals, which are accomplices of the powerful as always in the past, starting with the Social Democratic one, which has such a fine vice president in Jumblatt (I suggest to offer Jumblatt the temporary presidency if Brandt fails to recover). I wish to tell president Dankert that I feel a certain sympathy for him too, because the arrogance of this Council towards the Dutch presidency, the arrogance of Paris and Bonn towards yourselves, with the meeting of the day after tomorrow, is once again the arrogance of cowards, of powerful ones who behave in disrespect of all good principles. Let me also say that in the Quay
d'Orsay I no longer feel the spirit of Saint John Perse, of Alexis Leger de Saint Leger, who resigned after the Treaty of Münich to protest against Daladier. On the contrary, I can see a genetic continuity today between the Quay d'Orsay and the Elysée Palace and that French Parliament which, with the exception of a few dozen members, gave full powers to the government of Vichy.
You cannot continue to proclaim your neutrality while as Committee and as Council you decide an embargo against Yugoslavia. Shame on you! An embargo against Serbia might have made sense. Shame on you! You have created truces, deliberately and fraudulently giving the army which carried out the coup, and not the federal army, the time to occupy 50 percent of Croatia.
You are pursuing a mediation between partisans and Nazis. No doubt Lord Carrington belongs to Churchill's school, not the Churchill we all admire, but the Churchill who said "if I were Italian I would be a fascist" and handled matters concerning the League of Nations and concerning us in the same way in which you are handling this situation now.
I will not vote this resolution because it contains no condemnation of what has been done, but I hope that tomorrow the Socialist colleagues will not commit the infamy of withdrawing their signature from this text, even if it is hypocritical towards the past".
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While Pannella continued his hunger strike, the members of the Italian Parliament Roberto Cicciomessere, Emma Bonino, Giuseppe Calderisi, Giovanni Negri, Alessandro Tessari and Bruno Zevi introduced the motion on the situation in former Yugoslavia adopted at the conclusion of the Federal Council of Rome (refer to the previous issue of the Radical Letter). Back from the Soviet Union, the representative of the Mossoviet Alexander Kalinin asked and obtained a meeting with the President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Soviet, Kulin. During the meeting, Kalinin denounced the behaviour of fundamental "neutrality" held by the Soviet Union and by Russia.
In Prague, Budapest and Bucharest, the radical militants sought for demonstrations of practical support among the members of the Parliaments of those countries, on the basis of the text voted in Rome. Unfortunately - and often despite strong demonstrations of understanding and interest - such demonstrations were little more than lip service.
Faced to the exacerbation of the situation, after the fierce bombing of Vukovar and the siege of Dubrovnik, the radical parliamentarians of the European Federalist Group at the Italian Chamber introduced a second motion, which urged, among other things, the immediate recognition of Croatia and Slovenia and the withdrawal of the ambassadors from Belgrade:
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MOTION OF THE ITALIAN RADICAL PARLIAMENTARIANS
The Chamber,
considering that the political decisions and initiatives adopted to this moment by the Italian government and by the European political co-operation have contributed to producing, as sole result, the occupation of a consistent part of the territory of the Republic of Croatia on the part of the Serbian military forces and the occupation on the part of the coupmongers of the remaining federal structures of ex Yugoslavia;
considering that the continuation of such ruinous policy could contribute to further aggravating the situation in ex Yugoslavia;
considering that the non-recognition on the part of Italy of the Republics of ex Yugoslavia which have democratically proclaimed their independence and its position of "neutrality" between the assailing part and the assailed part have represented a de facto legitimation of the intervention of the army carrying out the coup in Croatia
considering therefore that it is urgent to radically modify the positions adopted by the Italian government as regards the crisis in ex Yugoslavia
binds the government
- to immediately recognize the republics of ex Yugoslavia which have democratically proclaimed their independence;
- to immediately withdraw the diplomatic delegation in Belgrade;
- to immediately order the army carrying out the coup to withdraw within the borders of the Republic of Serbia and, in the event of a default, to ask the E.C. and the U.N. Security Council to decide an embargo and a total economic boycott of the Serbian Republic.
Roberto Cicciomessere
Giuseppe Calderisi
Sergio Stanzani
Emma Bonino
Sandro Tessari
Giovanni Negri
Bruno Zevi
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EUROPE'S PRACTICAL AND JURIDICAL COMPLICITY WITH THE DICTATOR MILOSEVIC
On 17 October in Zagreb, Zdravko Tomac, vice prime minister of Croatia and member of the Radical Party, held a long press conference in which he described the meetings had in Moscow with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, with Gorbachev, and, separately, with Yeltsin and Shevardnazhe. The meeting with Gorbachev was attended also by the Serbian nationalist dictator Slobodan Milosevic.
A new agreement for a cease-fire was signed thanks to the mediation of Gorbachev. However, it proved scarcely effective, since the fightings in Croatia continued.
However, Tomac underlined that Gorbachev's acknowledgment of the impossibility, also in theory, of a possible Yugoslav "confederation" represented a positive fact. Moreover, during the meeting with Yeltsin, a negotiation was started for the achievement of direct economic agreements between Croatia and Russia, a fact which represents a significant step in the direction of the recognition.
During the press conference, the Vice Prime Ministers also mentioned Marco Pannella's initiative for the recognition of Croatia and Slovenia, quoting passages from his recent statements, in particular those relative to the complicity of Italy and of the European Community with the federal army and with the dictator Milosevic.
IVO JELIC, REPRESENTATIVE FROM DUBROVNIK, JOINS THE RADICAL PARTY
On 18 October, Ivo Jelic, member of the Croatian Parliament, elected in the Popular Party (HNS) in Dubrovnik, motivated his adhesion to the Radical Party, which he has often felt close to, as "an expression of recognition for the initiatives which the Radical Party and Marco Pannella are conducting in favour of peace in Croatia".
In the following days, radicals Alessandro Tessari, member of Parliament, and Sandro Ottoni, met the vice Premier Tomac to outline further initiatives in view of the Radical party's upcoming Federal Council in Zagreb.
On the following day in Ljubljana the same delegation met the President of the Parliament of Kosovo, Iliaz Ramaili and other exiled representatives.
During the meeting, the representatives of Kosovo insisted on the need for their participation in the conference of The Hague as legal representatives of Kosovo, which self-proclaimed its independence. The question of the independence of Kosovo, affirmed by Parliament and by the government, and corroborated by a referendum which obtained a vast majority (87%) should become part of the package to be discussed at The Hague in the following days.
150 YOUNG STUDENTS FROM DUBROVNIK START A FAST
On 21 October 1991, about 150 students from Dubrovnik started a hunger strike to underline the gravity of the situation of their city to the international public opinion. In a public statement, the students among other things revealed that their "fellow citizens had no food in the city under siege". According to some of the students, "Marco Pannella's example - which they had been informed of - prompted this nonviolent initiative".
Two days later, on 23 October, about eighty students from Dubrovnik, on a hunger strike, and a few hundred university students from Zagreb and thousands of citizens demonstrated in Jelicic Square. During the demonstration Ivo Jelic, representative from Dubrovnik and member of the Radical Party, delivered a speech.
In several interviews, Jelic recalled Marco Pannella's fasting initiative and the activity of the radical parliamentarians in the current debate in the Italian Parliament. Bearing candles and banners, on the following day the students went to the hotels in which the hundreds of journalists present in Zagreb were staying and to the hotel in which the observers of the European Community were lodging.
The banners read slogans in English such as "Europe shame on you", "Van der Brook shame on you", "Help for Dubrovnik" and pictures of the destructions. Diana Rexhepi, radical from Zagreb, who was participating in the demonstration, delivered a long interview at the Dutch radio.
S.O.S. FOR DUBROVNIK - S.O.S. FOR CROATIA
In the meanwhile, an appeal from the students was divulged via fax to most European universities:
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A bloody war has been in act in Croatia for four and a half months. Europe may never have heard of Vukovar, Osijek, Pakrac, Sibenik, but it cannot ignore the existence of Dubrovnik, the cradle of the Croatian and European culture.
Dubrovnik and its 60,000 inhabitants have been completely isolated from the rest of the world, without water or food for 22 days. We students from Dubrovnik and from the university of Zagreb are starting a hunger strike in support of our starving parents to stop the war in our country, and ask:
1) the immediate cease-fire in Dubrovnik
2) the reopening of the port, the airport and of the other international connections
3) withdrawal of the occupation forces from the whole Croatian territory
4) WE URGE ALL THE UNIVERSITIES OF EUROPE AND OF THE WORLD TO EXPRESS THEIR SUPPORT THROUGH A PROTEST TO BE ORGANIZED EVERY DAY AT NOON IN FRONT OF THEIR UNIVERSITIES.
Each demonstration of support will enable the weakest of us to interrupt the hunger strike.
"Libertas" - Students of Dubrovnik and Zagreb
Non bene pro toto
Libertas venditur auro
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THE RADICAL PARTY'S FEDERAL COUNCIL IN ZAGREB
On Thursday 31 October, at the Hotel Intercontinental of Zagreb, the Federal Council of the Radical Party opened with an introduction by Marco Pannella and with the reports of the First Secretary, Sergio Stanzani, and of the Treasurer, Paolo Vigevano. Over one hundred members attended the Council, including several radical parliamentarians from the Soviet Union, Ukraine, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Italy and the European Parliament. Also present is the European commissioner Carlo Ripa di Meana, the Croatian vice Prime Minister Tomac and the minister without portfolio Budisa.
Friday opened with a general debate on the ongoing initiatives. Guests from various republics of former Yugoslavia delivered addresses on this day and on the following days. The following were present at the opening of the Council: the Croatian Prime Minister Franjo Griguric, the vice prime minister Mate Granic, the minister of information Branko Salaj, ministers Drazen Budisa and Vlado Veselica. On the following days, the president of the Serbian Democratic Party of Croatia Milan Dukic, the member of the presidency of the majority party (HDZ) Dalibor Brozovic, the member of the presidency of the SPD (Party of Democratic Reform" Branko Caratan, the president of the Party of Democratic Action (in Serbia) Sulejman Ugljanin, the representative of the parliament of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Senad Sahinpasic, the parliamentarian and president of the Slovenian Liberal Party Joze Skolc, as well as the member of the presidency of the Party of Democratic Renewal Mauricio Olenik. Many mothers of Croatian soldiers, belonging
to the movement Bedem Ljubavi (Bastions of Love) were attending the Council and joined the Radical Party.
On Saturday, the question of former Yugoslavia was tackled, with special focus on the concrete proposals, the most significant and valid of which will be included in the special motion on ex Yugoslavia (published in this issue of the Radical Letter). In the afternoon, the proceedings were interrupted for almost an hour by an air-raid alarm.
During the evening, a delegation headed by the President of the Federal Council Marco Pannella and by the First Secretary Sergio Stanzani and composed of parliamentarians from the different countries "represented" were received by the President of the Republic of Croatia, Franjo Tujman.
A mission of the entire Federal Council to Sisak, on war territory, scheduled for 6 o'clock of Sunday morning, was prevented by the Croatian authorities which judged it too hazardous.
On Sunday, at the presence of the President of the Parliament of Kosovo, Iliaz Ramajili, the issue of this territory was discussed, where the policy of oppression and terror of the fascist regime of Belgrade dominate more than elsewhere.
During the interruption, a delegation of the Federal Council, consisting of several parliamentarians, visited a barrack of the Yugoslav federal army, besieged by the Croatian national guard.
The Council, after a new interruption due to another air-raid alarm, closed in the evening with the passage of a motion on former Yugoslavia and a general motion, also contained in the present issue of the Radical Letter. The Croatian Prime Minister Franjo Griguric joined the Radical Party (the complete list of personalities who have joined the party is contained in this issue of the Radical Party). The President of the Federal Council Marco Pannella expressed the hope, immediately backed by the Federal Council itself, of convening the next federal council of the Radical Party in Belgrade, in a free and democratic Belgrade.
