Paolo PIETROSANTI

In 1979, with Carlo Cassola and Francesco Rutelli, I helped to found the League for Disarmament, and I was also elected to the Political Secretariat.

In the early 1980s we managed to bring about the closure of the military prison in Gaeta, and devised new nonviolent means to combat the increase in military expenditure and to convert it into non-military spending for development.

In 1983 I published the book La Guerra Nonviolenta with Ivan Novelli.

I was detained for one week in Sicily for demonstrating at the Comiso nuclear site. I was found not guilty by the Court of Assize.

In 1986 I was tried and imprisoned in Poland for demonstrating in Warsaw for the release of 250 political prisoners and 1,000 conscientious objectors: the picture of the demonstrators was shown by the press and television worldwide. Expelled by the authorities, we received warm thanks from the underground direction of Solidarnosc. When I tried two years later to return in secret to Warsaw, I was expelled once again.

I have demonstrated for the Rule of Law in many countries. I have experienced many prisons, as well as many tribunals. Recently I was prosecuted in Rome for my act of civil disobedience in support of the abrogation of the prohibitionist drugs laws - laws that fill the coffers of the drugs traffickers and leave millions of young people in the hands of criminals, and expose all of us to the threat of drugs-related crime.

In other words I have produced facts, political battles - some of them hazardous - and not mere words.

In 1988, with Novelli and Rovasio, I made it pour with rain on the military parade along the Fori Imperiali. The parade was cancelled, and Japanese, European and American TV carried the story.

From 1988 I was the editor of the party newspaper Notizie Radicali. I was among the founders of the transnational party, and after several missions I moved to Prague in 1990. Here I opened a Radical Party office and, before and after the so called “velvet revolution”, met all the principal dissidents, from Havel to Dubcek, Hajek and Uhl.

Hundreds of the people in the new Czechoslovakia joined the RP, among them a member of the government and fifteen Members of Parliament.

We led thousands of people to demonstrate for the United States of Europe, the Rule of Law, the Anglo-Saxon first-past-the-post election system, and the legalisation of drugs.

We brought these issues to the core of the political debate, and were finally successful through nonviolence, winning with President Havel a struggle that involved the Radical Party (which had recently become a transnational party): in May 1990 the death penalty was abolished in Czechoslovakia, and the media all over the world gave credit for this to the joint commitment of President Havel and the RP.

As regards the death penalty, on the other hand, it is a much longer story long: in the 1980s, with Don Greganti, we set up “Non Uccidere” (Thou Shalt Not Kill), focused on the case of the young American Paula Cooper, whose penalty was eventually commuted. In 1988 we handed 3 million signatures against the death penalty to the UN Secretary General.

During the second half of the 1990s I was particularly involved in the struggle for democracy in China and for freedom in Tibet, and along with Marco Pannella and the TRP Secretary Olivier Dupuis I had a private meeting with the Dalai Lama.

I have been involved for many years in the UN sessions in Geneva. After years of highly intensive work in many countries and parliaments, we brought about the creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Court, a historic development in the sphere of justice and human rights.

After months of struggles Slobodan Milosevic and others responsible for the serious crimes committed in the Balkans were indicted by the Court.

In 1993, in New York, I was appointed UN Representative of the International Romani Union, the only world organisation to represent the Roma at the UN. At the 2000 world congress I was appointed Commissioner for Foreign Affairs.

Since then, along with President Emil Scuka, I have held bilateral meetings with 12 heads of state and governments as well as with the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan – after which I was invited to the CNN studios for a live interview live interview.
In this role, I have published articles and interviews in the main European media.

I lost my sight in 1993. During these years, as a blind person, I have realised that the disabled must be turned from costly assisted persons into tax payers.

Many years ago I worked for Radio Radicale as a journalistand later I used to review the early morning editions of the Italian papers.

I have promoted and organised various nonviolent and Gandhian collective initiatives, devising many new techniques of nonviolent struggle.

Since 1984 I have been a member of the Radical Party General Council. In 1993 the Secretary Emma Bonino appointed me to the Political Secretariat.

I was among the main candidates for the Lista Bonino in the European elections in 1999 and the Italian general elections in 2001.

A long story, therefore, but one which has not been interrupted at all by the loss of my sight, in spite of the extreme gravity of this handicap.

Contact: paolo@pietrosanti.net