ABSTRACT: With this letter Olivier Dupuis announced the beginning of a non-violent campaign during which he went on a hunger strike for 28 days and in which thousands of people participated. Thanks to the hunger strike carried out by Olivier Dupuis and hundreds of people, the thousands of faxes and telegrams sent from all parts of the world, on the night of 8 April the Fifth Commission (Administration and Finance) of the General Assembly of the United Nations passed the resolution that attributes legal authority to the international tribunal on war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia.

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Rome, 16 March 1994

Dear friend,

in the context of the campaign started by the Radical Party to urge the effective functioning of the international tribunal on war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, the establishment of a permanent international tribunal and to urge the adoption on the part of the U.N. of a universal moratorium on capital executions, we have started a non-violent initiative that should continue in the following months.

The first step of this Satyagraha, or collective hunger strike for dialogue, aims to press the U.N. to make a final and satisfactory decision on the question of the budget of the international tribunal on war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.

The interlocutors of our hunger strike for dialogue are, in this stage, the members of the Fifth Commission of the United Nations, scheduled to meet from 21 to 25 March to decide on the budget of the international tribunal on the former Yugoslavia.

During the second step of this hunger strike for dialogue, i.e. between 25 March and 3 April, the date of the Catholic Easter and the day in which we will hold our march from the Capitol to St.Peter's Square, our interlocutor will be John Paul II. In the hope that by his high moral authority he will encourage the campaign for the establishment of a permanent international tribunal and for a universal moratorium of capital executions.

Even if the terms of our Satyagraha will need to be further specified as far as the next steps are concerned, we already know that we will need to support the International Law Committee of the United Nations, which is charged with completing, in its coming session in May, the draft statute of the permanent tribunal. After that we will need to devise actions and initiatives with the following aims:

- urge the General Assembly to deal with the question of the universal moratorium of capital executions;

- urge the General Assembly to approve the statute of the permanent tribunal in its autumn session.

We hope that this first initiative will pave the way for a real Satyagraha with the participation of hundreds of people in the world in order to lay the foundations of a new international law and justice.

Olivier Dupuis

(President of the Radical Party's General Council)

(*) DUPUIS OLIVIER. (1958). Belgian conscientious objector, surrendered himself to the Belgian justice system and served an 11-month sentence in the prison of Saint Gilles. Worked at the French-speaking edition of "Radical News". Organized and participated in nonviolent and antitotalitarian demonstrations in the countries of Eastern Europe, and was for this reason expelled from Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Currently coordinates the party's activities in Rumania and Hungary. He is now working on the the project on the "New Party".