ABSTRACT: As we feared, the Fifth Commission, during its session of Marc 21-25, did not complete the discussion relative to the budget of the Tribunal. The fundamental question was whether or not to include the financing in the ordinary budget of the United Nations, which would make the tribunal into a U.N. institutions in all respects; the question has been postponed to a subsequent meeting of the Fifth Commission (April 5-8). Olivier Dupuis resumed the Satyagraha an this occasion, and wrote a fourth letter to the President of the Fifth Commission.

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To the attention of Mr. Rabad Hadid

President of the Fifth Commission

of the United Nations

Rome, April 5th, 1994

Mr. President,

it is with deep regret that I heard that the Fifth Commission was unable, during last week's session, to complete the agenda on the question of the budget of the ad hoc tribunal on crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia.

Moreover, while a certain number of questions have been solved during the night session of last Thursday, the most important and controversial question, i.e. whether or not to list the financing of the Tribunal in the ordinary budget of the United Nations, has not been tackled.

This point is essential for us, in that we believe that the prestige and the legitimacy and, as a consequence, the very functioning of the Tribunal are intrinsically linked to the type of budget chosen. The solution of the voluntary financing would inevitably pave the way for suspicions that this Tribunal is not the tribunal of the international community as a whole, and therefore "super partes", but that of one of the "parts".

Furthermore, the uncertainty that the option of the "extraordinary financing" would necessarily involve would have negative effects on several aspects of the tribunal, including the investigations the Tribunal will need to carry out on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

It is for all of these reasons that we will resume and intensify our international campaign, and that I personally have decided to go on a hunger strike, which I started last 13 March, trusting that the Commission you have the honour of chairing will address and satisfactorily solve this last obstacle to the full and complete functioning of this first instrument of international justice on Tuesday 5 April.

Hoping that during this week we will receive this important news, which many people in the world are anxiously expecting, I remain

Yours faithfully,

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".