Tunisia: 50 Years of Economic Development and Political Repression
Fifty years after the establishment of the Tunisian Republic on 25 July 1957, this country is still ruled by the same party, the Neo-Destour, nowadays called RCD (Rassemblement Constitutionnel Démocratique). Habib Bourguiba, the historic leader of this party which fought against French rule in Tunisia, was the first president of the Tunisian Republic. He was an authoritarian, charismatic leader who tolerated neither critics nor dissidence. Nevertheless, Bourguiba, a former lawyer, had no other ambition than power in itself. When he died in 2000, he left no secret Swiss accounts, no castles in Europe.
When he became president, he thought the country should have but one goal: economic and social development. Hence, there was no place for opposition parties or independent NGOs. Unlike many other African countries, Tunisia kept its military expenditures at their lowest level and focused on human development. For three decades the Tunisian State dedicated about one third of its budget to education.
But when you educate people, you lose control on their minds. That’s what happened short after the creation of the University of Tunis. Students started having their own opinion about the regime. The clash was inevitable. Perspectives Tunisiennes, an underground Communist student movement paid a dear price for their dissent. Their members were arrested, tortured and sentenced to heavy prison terms. But political repression reached somtetimes even prominent members of the regime itself. Ahmed Ben Salah, the "strong man" of the regime during the sixties, was dismissed in 1969 and sentenced to 10 years of prison after a parody of a trial.
Hedi Nouira, Bourguiba’s prime minister from 1970 to 1980, believed in economic liberalism but strongly defended Tunisia’s one-party regime. However, in 1977 his government recognized the Tunisian Human Rights League, the first genuine NGO in the country. During the same period appeared Errai, an independent weekly newspaper created by some advocates of political pluralism. But political liberalization stopped after the general strike of Januray 1978, which ended in a bloodshed that cost the lives of hundreds of citizens.
In the early eighties the newly appointed prime minister, Mohamed Mzali, promised political pluralism and indeed his government recognized several opposition parties. But the same "political ouverture" coincided with the crackdown on the Islamist movement. The leadership of the Islamic Tendency movement were tried during the summer of 1981 and sent to prison. They would be released a couple of years later. In spite of this unfair trial, Tunisia witnessed in November 1981 its first pluralistic elections. But under the instrcutions of the president himself, the ministry of the interior manipulated the final results to prevent the opposition from entering the parliament. Tunisia missed, hence, its first exam of democracy.
After the "bread riots" of January 1984, general Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali was appointed Director of the National Security at the Ministry of the Interior. The promotion of this "security expert" would never stop ever since. The declining health of Bourguiba intensified the struggle for power among his aides. But General Ben Ali concealed his ambition and showed absolute loyalty to Bourguiba. He presided over the ruthless repression of campus demonstations and all kinds of protests. Political repression reached its climax with the death sentences prnounced by the State Security Court against several members of the Islamist movement in 1987.
Ben Ali became Prime Minister in October 1987. On November 7, 1987 Ben Ali announced the destitution of Bourguiba for medical reasons. He promised a " New Era" where human rights would be respected, democracy strengthened and press freedom more protected. But during the same day, dozens of army and security officers were arrested, tortured and kept in custody. The regime accused them of having planned a military coup against Bourguiba. Mohamed Mansouri, an army officer, had been tortured to death in December 1987. His death was a foretaste of the "New Era". But the worst was to come.
In 1988 Om Zied, a freelance journalist, published on Errai an article where she warned her readers against the exagerated enthusiasm for Ben Ali. The piece’s title was "Wrong Note". She wrote:" Don’t forget his military and security background. What if he would lead us to a way worse than that of Bourguiba? Don’t give him a free hand !". The police confiscated all the copies of the newspaper. Errai was banned forever. But inspite of this drastic measure Tunisia was not a police State yet.
It was only after the crackdown on the Islamist Ennahda movement in 1991 that the already authoritarian regime became a totalitarian one. Thousands of Ennhda sympathizers were arrested, about 40 among them died under torture, and military courts sent hundreds to prison. The regime profited from his war on Islamism to create a climate of terror that paralyzed Tunisians and silenced their intelligentsia.
The circle of repression kept widening during the nineties. It was now the turn of secular opponents and human rights militants to be tried and put in prison. At the end of the last century, the human rights violations by the Tunisian regime started to have some international media coverage. But the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001 gave the Tunisian regime the opportunity to boast about its "achievements in the war againt terror".
Since 2000 the internet became more and more popular in Tunisia. Internet also connected Tunisian human rights activists to the outside world. But it brought a new kind of political prisoners too: the cyber-dissidents. Zouhayr Yahyaoui was the first among them. His only "crime" was the creation of a satirical website in July 2001 and the publication of articles critical to the government. He spent 18 months in prison and died a few months after his liberation. During the last few years many young cybernautes were arrested, tortured and put in prison only because they had allegedly visited "prohibited websites".
A group of Tunisian militants who went on hunger strike on Otober 18, 2005 profited from the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), held in Tunisia in November 2005, to draw the attention of the international community about the lack of civil liberties in Tunisia. But during that summit the authorities censored even foreign guests ! The Tunisian TV cut the transmission of the Swiss President’s speech as soon as he spoke about human rights. The hunger-strikers were visited by hundreds of people from different regions of the country to show them support. But the movement lost its thrust shortly after he WSIS.
Omar K.
The Hague, 25 July 2007
