ABSTRACT: Editorial of the issue of "1994, Il quotidiano radicale" devoted to the ad hoc tribunal on ex-Yugoslavia. No one - reads the article - has realized the importance of the decision of the United Nations Security Council of establishing the Tribunal. The decision was perceived as "yet another unheeded resolution". The tribunal will instead be able to begin operating soon, and this is much feared by those who would like to continue "negotiating" with the same men who are "accused of genocide" and to "not sign" the division of Bosnia into three parts. The efforts to sink the project of the tribunal continue: "the endless chess game on the candidates could result in a hasty decision...". "The radical party's objectives [...] are that a public prosecutor be elected at once, and that the Tribunal be given the necessary means..."

(1994 - IL QUOTIDIANO RADICALE, 25 October 1993)

When the United Nations Security Council decided last 25 May to set up the ad hoc international tribunal on the crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, none of the fifteen representatives seemed to fully realize the challenge that had been launched. Most member States thought they had perhaps fed the public opinion yet another unheeded resolution. The progress of the conflict in Bosnia Herzegovina, the pressure of the international public opinion, have greatly improved the situation. The ad hoc tribunal could really be established in The Hague despite the obstacles. But why does part of the international community perceive the tribunal on ex-Yugoslavia as something so dangerous? Essentially because it unsettles that Realpolitik of which the Geneva conference is the latest demonstration. Organizing a trial that would prosecute Karadzic, Milosevic and Boban, would force to interrupt the negotiations with those same men who are accused of genocide. It would mean signing the (ethnic) division of Bosnia Herzeg

ovina into three regions. The attempt enacted by the "Anglo-French front" is therefore slowing down the actual functioning of the tribunal in order to sign a peace, whatever it may be. There are many instruments: first of all, slowing down the fulfilment of the commitments of Resolution 827. Then - once the tribunal has been set up - hindering its work. A few examples? The eleven judges who form the Court have been elected after strong tension and conflicts among the Western and Islamic states. The result has been terrible: the choice of the public prosecutor has been even more difficult, if possible. First the elimination thanks to the Anglo-French veto, of Cherif Bassiouni, who had been proposed not only by Boutros Ghali but also by all those who wanted a prosecutor general who, knowing the huge quantity of material, could quickly start the trial. Then came the sinking of the non-aligned countries of the "Western" candidate, the Indian Soli Sorabyee. The endless chess game on the candidates could result in

a hasty choice, made just in time to allow te public prosecutor to reach the first meeting of the eleven judges, scheduled for 17 November, not entirely unprepared. The radical party's objectives, at this point, are obtaining the election of the public prosecutor at once, and providing the tribunal with the necessary financial means to begin operating, so that the criminals may at last be tried in December.