ABSTRACT: The secretary of the Radical Party talks about her trip to Sarajevo and the initiative to allow the mayor of that city to come to Italy, about the campaign to prevent the recognition of the new Yugoslav federation, the situation in Kosovo and the "Balkanic Federation".

(Interview published on issue n. 36 of 8 September 1993 of the Bulgarian weekly "Makedonia", organ of the VMRO - Union of Macedonian Associations)

Emma Bonino, 45 years old, is an Italian politician, radical Member of Parliament. She began her political activity with an initiative to protest clandestine abortion in Italy and is co-promoter of the campaign for a nuclear-free Italy. She is one of the leaders of the transnational radical party and is particularly concerned about the problems of ex-Yugoslavia and the cessation of the conflicts in the Balkans.

- Mrs Bonino, in early January you met the mayor of Sarajevo. Give us some more details about your difficult mission.

- I read in the press that the mayor of Sarajevo has addressed an appeal to the international community, asking for help to leave Sarajevo to visit the European capitals and promote an information campaign on the situation of that city. He explained he could not leave Sarajevo, as if he were a prisoner. I thought a situation of this kind was intolerable, and that this mayor could not be kept a prisoner. Thus, I decided to establish a direct contact with the mayor and go to Sarajevo as a journalist. I got in touch with UNPROFOR and said I was a journalist. I flew to Sarajevo. It was bitter cold at the airport and I didn't manage to get to the city because it was very dangerous and there were no UNPROFOR vehicles. A few hours later I managed to reach the city and checked in a hotel where all foreign journalists were staying. There was neither water nor electric power. At the reception a young woman noticed my radical membership card and said she too was a member of the Radical Party. I told her I had come to S

arajevo to meet the mayor, and she managed to get me in touch with him. We met at night. Back in Rome I went to see a government official and said the situation was intolerable. A few days later, since Italy has no UNPROFOR planes, our government decided to send a governmental plane to pick up the mayor. An Italian military plane thus flew to Sarajevo with the mission of picking up the mayor and flying him to Rome. The mayor was thus able to describe the situation in Sarajevo to the international press. Lastly, our government asked the U.S. administration for an UNPROFOR plane to fly the mayor back to Sarajevo. Incidentally the mayor is a member of our party.

- How does the transnational radical party manage to communicate with East European countries where you count many members?

- Generally speaking we communicate little: some militants run big risks by traveling to these countries. Some comrades go to Prishtina, Kosovo and Belgrade to make contacts. Moreover, we have an office in Prishtina, with a computer, and we can communicate at any time of the day or night.

- Do you expect any support to your initiative for the non-recognition of the new Yugoslavia?

- The problem is very simple. Formally speaking Yugoslavia is recognized by no state. It is not a member of the United Nations. But there is widespread hypocrisy, since it is not a member, but all states have their embassies, and the situation is abnormal in political terms. It also contravenes the juridical rules. If the new Yugoslavia is not a member of the UN, then diplomatic relations must be severed. Therefore, our countries should not have embassies in a state that does not exist. We said that in order to be recognized, Yugoslavia should respect the rules and recognize Macedonia, Croatia and Bosnia, as well as respect the minorities. Unless Serbia respects all this there can be no recognition, neither de facto nor de jure.

- Do you think the deployment of UN forces in Kosovo will avoid an armed conflict?

- Clearly the problem now lies in the Statute of the United Nations, and in the fact that its forces cannot be deployed within the country, but at the border between Bosnia and Yugoslavia, for instance. But Kosovo is a region of Serbia, and this will represent a precedent. The question posed at the United Nations Security Council is also that of the country at issue, since it is not recognized. The contradiction lies in the fact that Kosovo is part of an unrecognized country, and if a campaign were organized to create a precedent in Kosovo this will be possible.

- Was the initiative of creating a Balkanic confederation yours? Isn't there the risk that it will be a utopia?

- It may seem utopian, but it is the only effective solution. Today everyone is organizing into confederation, not just in Europe but also in the United States, in Canada and in Mexico. On the one hand there is the European market, on the other hand the common market between U.S., Canada and Mexico. To favour common economic interests, there is the idea of a Balkanic confederation, not between a dominating country and oppressed countries, but among countries with equal rights that are seeking common interests in specific fields. It seems to me that this is the only possible way to keep the strife under control. Psychologically speaking, the fears that the countries of this confederation would be oppressed by Belgrade or Moscow and that the only way to overcome the contradictions would be national independence are justified. But the national state cannot solve all problems - for instance in economic terms. The idea of a confederation among states with equal rights corresponds to modern reality.

- But there are old contradictions among states in the Balkan peninsula.

- True, but the only way to solve the contradictions is trying to overcome them, not sitting back. Without the ambition to overcome the internal crises, these will explode and continue to explode ever dangerously.

Translator's notes

(1) BONINO EMMA. (Bra 1948). President of the Radical Party, former member of the European Parliament, as of 1976 member of the Italian Parliament. Among the promoters of the CISA (Information Centre on Sterilization and Abortion) and active militant in the campaign against clandestine abortion. She was tried and acquitted in Florence. Participated in the conduction, on a national and international scale, of the campaign on World Hunger. Among the founding members of "Food and Disarmament International", promoted the circulation of the Manifesto of Nobel Laureates.