Page 34 - DIVA_2_2018

this sovereign Territory to the Italian
government. This pact was, by the
way, broken by all parts the very day
after it was agreed upon.
We are now at the point where the
Italian government admits that the
Free Territory of Trieste existed until
1975, when the bilateral so-called
treaty of Osimo was signed by Italy
and Yugoslavia. The interesting fact
is that - among a staggering amount
of further irregularities - when
we asked public International law
experts about this, we have been
told very clearly that "the Treaty of
Osimo, a bilateral treaty, could not
and equitable international order, sovereign country. And the only thing have amended the Peace Treaty,
professor de Zayas, who intervened at left to do was acting upon these very a multilateral treaty' Nothing of
our first demonstration ever in Geneva notions, in order to raise awareness of relevance happened since then.
in September 2017, recognising that this unique and almost-unbelievable The only possible further conclusion
our claims do have merit, and that situation in the population, as well is that, in 2018, the Treaty of Peace
the Peace Treaty with Italy still needs as - being the reason Triest NGO with Italy is fully in force, and the
to be fully applied, following the was founded - in the International Free Territory of Trieste, with its
principle of pacta sunt servanda. community. Free Port, is a sovereign country,
Professor de Zayas emphasized that with its sovereign citizens, and it
the International order requires Most people have read about Trieste happens to be today under the civil
entails in the history books, but I would say
Rechtssicherheit, administration of Italy, Slovenia and
which
strict respect of treaties and uniform the majority of us believe that you Croatia, which is being carried out in
application of international norms. are part of Italy. Is this not the case? an illegal way.
Most Triestines themselves thought
Could you please tell us a little about the same, until information leading What exactlywouldyouliketoachieve?
yourself, and why you have engaged to the opposite conclusion began No doubt, the application of the
in this cause? to spread, just a few years ago. International legislation currently in
Iamasimplecitizen,withabackground Moreover, the administering force, something that should be taken
in design and management, who got countries' justifications for what for granted in a normal situation.
in touch with the Free Port and Free happened seem to change all the But we are unfortunately not in one.
Territory of Trieste in the same way time, with their governments willing While there technically is a chance for
thousands of Triestines did: thanks to ignore and repress the issue for as Italy, Slovenia and Croatia to apply
to the internet lifting, for the first long as they can afford to. these laws, which could also go to
time in decades, a strict censorship Take the example of Italy: their first their advantage, we have instead been
over these issues, in the early 2010s. version was that in 1947 they never subject to censorship and repression,
We directly consulted all the relevant really lost their sovereignty over exercised with complete impunity.
sources, with a substantial amount the Free Territory of Trieste; this, of There are several potential steps
of scepticism. "This could not course, can be easily seen as a lie by towards our objective. From
possibly be true, some other treaty anyone who happens to have read relatively simple ones like official
must have put an end to it" was the the peace treaty itself (Art. 21.2). notes of protest for violating the
kind of thought I originally had. As this theory was easily dismissed, UN Charter directed towards the
But I was surprised to find out that it morphed into Italy having acquired countries directly involved, to the
no such subsequent treaty exists. sovereignty thanks to the 1954 one decision that could stabilise the
Therefore, what we had in our Memorandum of Understanding, a situation in virtually no time: the
hands were new, relevant pieces document that is temporary by nature, nomination of a Governor of the Free
of information that involved what which did not - and could not, being Territory by the UN Security Council.
we now know to be an artificially equivalent to a letter of intent - change It is worth mentioning that
economically depressed area of any sovereignty status, simply giving our claims do not come from a
Europe, which also happens to be a "civil administration" of a portion of nationalist perspective but quite

32 DIVA - INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMAT