Double Repression in Tunisia

One of the most remarkable, in a horrific sense, things about the Ben Ali dictatorship in Tunisia is its zero tolerance policy on dissent. From a strategic position, it is entirely counterproductive. Due to the relative prosperous nature of Tunisia and the political stability of the country (in stark contrast to neighboring Algeria which witnessed a civil war in the 1990s that the cost the lives of 200,000 people) alongside the moderate appearance of the ruling class (in stark contrast with the other neighbor in Libya's buffoonish Qadhafi), dissent in Tunisia is a mild affair. Most are not enthusiastic about the president (and his in-laws are widely detested), but people are content enough. Thus dissenters are marginal and their influence inconsequential. The regime could easily tolerate them and showcase them to Western human rights officials as token opposition. Props to be used to falsely present an image of democracy and pluralism in the nation. That would be clever: the regime will always immediately suppress any opposition with teeth, but with what they are working with in Tunisia they can allow for an opposition of sorts while making sure that their authority remains unchallenged all the while it would maintain the appearance of a liberal regime that the government is keen on promoting.

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Instead, they are ruthless in suppressing dissent to their great image loss. A Tunisian human rights activist who is unheard of by most Tunisians becomes the subject of Western headlines and NGO reports all because the thuggish secret police refuses to allow him to publish an obscure website.

Of course, Tunisians have an inalienable right to freedom of speech and the right to association. I am not trying to instruct the Ben Ali goons on how to better manage the P.R. of repression, but just to say a few words of caveat that the government in its extreme repression is actually undermining its international standing when it need not have to resort to such practices in order to insure its continued dominance. That illustrates just how awful the Ben Ali and Trabelsi (the in-laws) group are in their oppression of innocent Tunisians, and so does this:

Plainclothes police officers [a common tactic] had been following them for days. The hotel suddenly rescinded its offer to rent them a conference room, and then, when they returned to their suite after dinner, they were told it had been flooded.

"Coincidentally, there were no other rooms available in the whole hotel," Sarah Whitson said wryly.

As the Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, the dark irony was not lost on Whitson. She was supposed to be holding a press conference in Tunis on the repression of political prisoners in Tunisia, but instead she found herself facing the same political tactics and harassment she and her team had so scrupulously documented.

The press conference Wednesday was to announce the release of a 42-page report titled "A Larger Prison: Repression of Former Political Prisoners in Tunisia." But several days ago the government informed Whitson that the conference would not take place, dismissing the report as "biased."

Authorities sent minders to follow the Human Rights Watch team and called Tunisian journalists to warn them against attending the press conference. When Whitson and her colleagues decided go forward with it from the offices of a prominent human rights lawyer, police physically blocked journalists and lawyers from entering and took down the license plate numbers of their cars. In the end, just one diplomat and three activists were able to attend.

"We’ve held two press conferences before without incident, so this came as a big surprise and it reflects what people here in Tunisia are telling us, that things are getting worse," Whitson, told The Times.

Tunisia has been criticized for its human rights record by a number of international organizations, but maintains close economic and intelligence ties with most Western countries, including the United States. According to Human Rights Watch, government harassment of former prisoners includes close surveillance, denial of passports, threats of re-arrest and restrictions on movement.

Whitson taped the press conference and uploaded to YouTube.

"We think it's important to maintain the principle of free speech, and to the extent that this government has chosen to block this, we think it exposes the Tunisian government for what is is, a government that does not respect basic rights," Whitson said.

Double repression. A new low.