ABSTRACT: An account of the meeting between the radical delegation led by Emma Bonino (1) and Boutros Boutros-Ghali, during which the Secretary-General was presented with over 25,000 signatures collected to support the U.N. Tribunal. During the meeting Boutros-Ghali stressed the importance of initiatives coming from the public opinion, failing which "the Member States would have no interest in supporting the U.N.'s efforts". Lastly, Boutros-Ghali anticipated the subsequent steps, which will be enacted by the inauguration in The Hague of the Tribunal, and remembered the serious financial difficulties that undermine the initiative.

(1994 - IL QUOTIDIANO RADICALE, 12 November 1993)

On 2 November Emma Bonino met the United Nations Secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali in New York at the U.N. headquarters, to present him with over 25,000 signatures collected all over the world to urge the immediate and effective establishment - under Resolution 827 (May 1993) of the Security Council - of the International Tribunal for war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia. Accompanying the secretary was a delegation formed by members of Parliament from Greece, Bosnia and Montenegro.

Boutros-Ghali's thanking was more than just formal. Boutros Ghali underlined that without the constant support of parliamentary groups, personalities of culture and Nongovernmental Organizations the initiative could fail. "We" - he said - "would not in a condition to obtain the support of the international public opinion, and without it the Member States would have no interest in supporting the efforts of the United Nations". Boutros-Ghali also stressed the importance of the Tribunal: for the first time in the history of the United Nations - he said - the Security Council has decided to create a Tribunal with functions that go beyond the national borders.

Boutros-Ghali informed the radical delegation that the Tribunal would be officially inaugurated in The Hague - with top representation of the U.N. - on 17 November. By that date the eleven judges will meet in the capital of The Netherlands together with the Venezuelan Procurator-General Ramon Escovar Salom. That could be the appropriate occasion both to give maximum "visibility" to the new judicial body in the eyes of the international public opinion and to exert a strong "pressure" on the Assembly General itself. Boutros-Ghali said he hoped the radical delegation would be able to attend the ceremony. The Secretary-General also confirmed, however, that there are still huge financial difficulties since the forecasts place the amount to be spent on the Tribunal at $35 million a year.

In answer to Boutros-Ghali, Arieh Neier, President of the Open Society Fund, said the mandate of the Commission of Experts on War Crimes should be extended in order to gradually start the Tribunal's activity. Zdarvko Tomac, former Vice President of the Croatian Council said also on behalf of his colleagues from Montenegro and Bosnia that the Tribunal's task would not only be punishing the culprits, but would be effective in preventing further violations of the humanitarian law.

The Radical delegation also met with the journalists at the press office of the United Nations.

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.