Verena Graf

in Léo Matarasso, Seminario del 6 dicembre 2008, Cedetim, Parigi

It was probably the fact that I had received a letter from the LIDLIP liquidation team only one or two days before our meeting that motivated Philippe Texier to ask Verena to speak. Replying that this was not on the agenda, I understand that they wanted to hear from me what was going on.
Only those who were present at the General Assembly of LIDLIP which decided on the dissolution at the end of March (2008), received the report. It is mainly for financial reasons – we could not afford the costs – that we did not distribute the report widely, but I can send it to you. I have a copy here with me.
It has been very difficult the last few months: the work of tidying up, closing, winding up and with the help of Oretta and Romuald, we have brought this mandate to a close, I believe, in a dignified manner.
Let me go back a bit: thanks to Oretta who often came to Geneva, the sorting of the archives could be done and the archives in 17 big boxes could be sent to IISH (Amsterdam) and are now stored for consultation. The three of us succeeded in concluding the liquidation work and thus finished with LIDLIP. But we have bounced back, we have other mandates, always in the context of people’s rights and collective rights, and we have left for other activities in other structures.

Now, in relation to Léo, the reason we are here, I would have a lot to say about the years I spent with him. I draw on memories of meetings during the UN Human Rights Commissions, where he presented a number of speeches, but also “à partés” with “freedom fighters”, such as, for example, the Farabundo Martí Liberation Front of El Salvador, which had sought his advice in order to act in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. The conversation ended with Léo telling them an episode of his struggle in the underground. Also inscribed in my memory is a meeting with Kazem Rajavi, the representative of the Iranian Mujahideen who was later assassinated by Mullah killers outside his home in the Geneva countryside. One aspect of Léo that did not suit me so well was his predilection for Cuban cigars, and I particularly remember the dawn of the last day of a session of the Peoples’ Tribunal in Stockholm (on Afghanistan), when at 6 o’clock after a very short night due to the work involved in drafting the verdict, he dictated to me the last passage of the verdict, which was to be released to the press two hours later, filling me with his abundant clouds of nicotine, which are difficult to digest, especially on an empty stomach.

Graf, Verena

in:

<strong>Léo Matarasso,
Seminario del 6 dicembre 2008, Cedetim, Parigi
Milano, maggio 2009</strong>