ABSTRACT: The author expresses his appreciation for the radical party's initiative for the immediate constitution of the international court to judge crimes in the former Yugoslavia, particularly after the UN Security Council has made the difficult decision of excluding Cherif Bassiouni as candidate for the post of public prosecutor of the court. Bassiouni had worked for over a year, collecting a large documentation on the crimes committed in ex-Yugoslavia. The author thinks that the British, who opposed his candidacy, might have been concerned that an early beginning of the activities of the tribunal could hamper Lord Owen's endeavours to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. As a consequence the public prosecutor, to be appointed by the Security Council, will need between 6 and 8 months to acquire the necessary elements on the situation, and a few dozen million dollars will be squandered in the process.

(IL GIORNALE, September 27th, 1993)

The radical party has organized a national and international campaign to press for the immediate constitution of the international court to judge crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia. The creation of such court was decided by resolution N. 827 of 25th May 1993 of the United Nations Security Council.

For many years the radical party - especially at the initiative of its president Emma Bonino - has been active in promoting both the creation of this ad hoc tribunal and the setting up of a permanent international crimes tribunal.

Personalities in the field of culture, politics and the media, including the editor of "Il Giornale" Indro Montanelli, have endorsed the radical party's appeal which is all the more necessary to overcome the many obstacles in the way of the constitution of the tribunal on crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia.

The next two steps of this process are the nomination of the 11 judges who will form the college of the court and that of the public prosecutor.

As far as the judges are concerned, the UN Security Council has selected 23 candidates among those suggested by the member States. The General Assembly then voted by choosing among this list of names. So far only 7 of 11 candidates have obtained the necessary 98 votes (the absolute majority of member States). Among them, the Italian Antonio Cassese, professor of international law, who ranked third. Tension arose within the Assembly when the two Muslim candidates, one from Turkey and the other from Pakistan, failed to obtain the quorum. Some suspect that the Western countries did not vote for them. Another reason of serious conflict is that of the two women candidates, only the American one was voted, while the Costa Rican was not.

However, if the tension within the General Assembly subsides and the four missing judges are elected this week, the election of the public prosecutor seems instead remote. Initially the Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali had proposed three candidates: a Briton, a Kenyan and an American. A subsequent selection had designated the Briton George Lowe and the Egyptian-born American Cherif Bassiouni, who had received the Secretary-General's endorsement. But it seems that the Security Council received diplomatic pressure to scrap these names and consider two other candidates (one from Argentina and another from Asia).

Bassiouni's exclusion is particularly deplorable since he had been directly appointed by Boutros-Ghali in October 1992 to be one of the five members of the committee of experts who are to investigate human rights violations in the former Yugoslavia, established by resolution 780 of 1992. Bassiouni later worked within this committee as special relator on the gathering and processing of the data.

In mid-May 1993, Bassiouni, with the help of several American foundations, has already drafted over 16,000 pages of reports, accounts and other material, with a large number of testimonies stored in a computer database. The material referred, among others, to rapes, killings, massacres, torture, forcible deportation, child kidnapping, forcible migration, etc.

On forwarding the report on the material collected to the Security Council, the committee of experts appointed by Boutros-Ghali expressed full appreciation for Bassiouni's work. The Secretary-General has in the meanwhile urged the committee to continue its work. Perhaps this huge bulk of material is what frightened the British, who fear that an early implementation of the tribunal could ultimately hamper Lord Owen's endeavours to find a peaceful solution to the conflict underway in the territories of ex-Yugoslavia.

The consequence, at any rate, is that the public prosecutor appointed by the Security Council will need between six and eight months to acquire the necessary elements on the situation. In the meanwhile, according to estimates made by experts, a few dozen million dollars will be squandered. The initiative of national and international mobilization promoted by the radical party with the consent of NGO's of many countries is, therefore, not only appropriate but also timely.