ABSTRACT: The radicals' non-violent initiative to ensure the International tribunal the funds necessary for its functioning

(L'EUROPEO, 13-20 April 1994)

Four hundred people went on a hunger strike for twenty days, until 8 April. They urged the United Nations Generals Assembly to approve the $32 million allocation (50 billion lire) for the Tribunal of The Hague. They are the radicals, and they have been campaigning for years to obtain, in their leader's words, Emma Bonino, "an embryo of international justice, and so that the Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia become a permanent court against all war crimes". Among the participants in the hunger strike, twenty members of Parliament among the radicals, including Roberto Cicciomessree and Pio Rapagnŕ, the socialist MEP Maria Magnani Noia and 27 more foreigners. The radicals have also managed to obtain the allocation of 3 billion lire for the tribunal from the Italian government.

The radical party is particularly concerned about an apparently secondary aspect pf the tribunal: they want the tribunal to be financed with the ordinary budget of the United Nations, not through the voluntary contributions of the single states, as for peacekeeping operations. Only in this way can the tribunal become a real institution of the United Nations. The United States agree on this point, but for different reasons they contribute to the budget of the United Nations with a scant 25%, vs. the 31% they cover for peacekeeping operations. So far, the tribunal has lived on the extraordinary emergency funds, and unfortunately the United Nations Assembly seems incline to continue this state of precariousness.