SUMMARY: This gives a record of the various points touched on by Marco Pannella in a press conference on the issue of the crisis in Yugoslavia. Specifically, it announces that Pannella will take part in a "open meeting" in Belgrade, and that in the hours following this, the Radical Party will engage in activities at the European Community and the governments of the 12 member nations. Finally, some dramatic news from Kosovo is reported.

1) The news coming from Kosovo is extremely serious. The very harsh policy enforced by the Serbian government is literally incomprehensible. Comprehensible, but serious, is the situation of impotence in which the central government finds itself. An aspect that is generally missed in the analyses by observers is the very delicate and dramatic situation of anyone in Serbia who refuses to go along with the Republic's policies, with the exception perhaps of Serbs that are part of the higher echelons of the State and Army apparatus. There is a serious risk that the nationalistic policies of the Government will end up in the loss of those few civil and political formal, democratic freedoms of Serb citizens as such.

2) The Radical Party, in the context of suspending a great part of its activities planned since the beginning of the year, did not assume specific activities concerning Yugoslavia, in spite of its being traditionally a focus of interest. The news that is reaching us demands a resurgence of activity on this front. For this reason, Friday night in Belgrade there will be an open meeting in which I shall participate, as President of the Federal Council of the Radical Party, representative at the European Parliament, member of the delegation European Parliament-Yugoslav Parliament, which for reasons that appear to be unclear, is in fact inactive at this time.

3) The way this meeting will take place will be an essential additional element to assess the situation. We are being told that, by now, people are afraid to participate in any democratic initiative, and that the press itself is less free and informs less than in the past decade. We have the duty not to believe it, unless the opposite is proven true.

4) In the next few hours we will ask the European Community and the Governments of the 12 member nations, starting from Italy, what their assessment and intentions are, concerning Yugoslavia. We will also ask the Serbian highest authorities to help us understand better their point of view and their intentions for the present and the future.

In the meantime dramatic news continues to reach us from Kosovo.

1) all humanitarian help destined to the Albanian population is being confiscated by the Serb authorities. Slovenia and Swiss Red Cross convoys are beingsent back at the border.

2) All Albanians in the employ of the public sector have been fired (that corresponds to 15% of the working population).

3) About 1400 private enterprises belonging to Albanians have been closed down by the authorities.

4) All Albanian doctors have been fired and replaced by Serbian personnel.

5) We have news that at least three villages in the Kosovo area are completely isolated and surrounded by Serbian police, who does not allow the villagers to circulate or have contacts with the outside.