For the attention of the

President of the Republic of Ukraine

LEONID M. KRAVCHUK

Mr. President,

We are writing to you on behalf of the organizers of the world-wide parliamentary campaign for the abolition of the death penalty, which has been supported by over six hundred parliamentarians and government officials, and hundreds of preeminent international personalities in the fields of culture, science, and art. Herewith enclosed is a memo containing the most important of such names.

We are writing to you, Mr. President, also on behalf of the over 150 parliamentarians from 22 countries and 61 parties or national lists who, to date, have joined the Radical Party along with Nobel Prize winners and international personalities. A list of such persons is also enclosed.

The Radical Party is a nonviolent, transnational cross-party, whose chief objective is the defense of the right to life and the life of rights. This is why it operates beyond national boundaries and national political membership, and does not take part in the elections with its own lists.

We are addressing an appeal to you, Mr. President, to urge the suspension of the death sentence against MAKOVECKIJ OLEG NIKOLAJEVICH, and its transformation into imprisonment.

We know that that the situation of Oleg Makoveckij is very serious, an "extreme" situation. It is what is usually called a "desperate case", a case for which many would be willing to accept the death penalty or reconsider it as necessary. This is precisely why we want to emblematically draw your attention, Mr. President, on this case. Precisely because the crime committed by Oleg Makoveckij is a heinous one, the State which you preside cannot "reciprocate" it with the death penalty. A State cannot respond to a criminal behaviour with an equally cruel practice.

At a moment in which you country is experiencing a crucial period of its political and civil history, with the aim of distinguishing itself from totalitarian systems, a few essential elements - the right to life and the life of rights above all - should be underlined in the behaviours and in the laws, rather than degraded to mere declarations of principle. That which should be affirmed as an individual right - the right of each human being not to be killed as an effect of the law or of the decision of any public authority or other authority recognized by the law, for any reason - should be gradually but rigorously introduced in State regulations.

Your young democracy, but our ancient and consolidated ones (in good or bad) as well, should distinguish themselves from totalitarianism also as regards the practice of the death penalty.

Our dissent vis-à-vis the United States, for example, is as firm as our acknowledgment of their principles of freedom, rule of law and political democracy, principles which we share with them.

This is why, also with respect to countries that maintain capital punishment, your decision on the case of Oleg Makoveckij and of the other convicts of the prisons of your country who await execution (including Vadim Petrenko and Jurij Khromov, both citizens of Zithomir, whose death sentence was confirmed last 6 June by the Supreme Court) is very important.

We are sure you understand the human and especially the political value which an affirmative reply on your part would assume in the eyes of the international public opinion. The acceptance of the appeal we are addressing you and - more generally - the suspension of executions in Ukraine, precisely because they come from an area of which world which was until very recently considered the "empire of the evil", today, at the dawn of democracy, would represent a decisive step, en example of juridical civilization addressed to countries of more ancient democracy; they would represent a tremendous force for those who struggle for the abolition of the death penalty in those countries.

This is our wish, Mr. President, and the essence of our political position as democrats, militants of the rule of law and nonviolence, as parliamentarians and personalities who participate in the campaign against the death penalty.

For our part, we pledge to immediately communicate the outcome of the appeal we are addressing you, and all the more so - obviously - in the event of an affirmative answer, to all parliamentarians who participate in our movement, and through them, to the parliaments they are members of, in particular the European Parliament. The latter - at the initiative of Adelaide Aglietta, Federal Councillor of the Radical Party - has recently passed a resolution which supports the abolition of the death penalty, which you will find herewith enclosed.

Thanking you for your kind attention, we hope in a prompt answer.

Yours faithfully,

Sergio Stanzani Emma Bonino Paolo Vigevano

MP, First Secretary MP, President of Treasurer of

of the Radical Party the Radical Party the Radical Party

Marco Pannella Sergio D'Elia

Member of the European Parliament, Federal Councillor of

President of the Radical Party's the Radical Party

Federal Council

Tel. 39-6-689791 - Fax 39-6-6545396