We Support the Democratic Revolution in Tunisia

Statement by the Campaign for Peace and Democracy

January 16, 2011

http://www.cpdweb.org/tunisia.shtml

We express our solidarity with the Tunisian people in their
struggle against a repressive and corrupt regime.

Unemployed youth, students, trade unionists, lawyers, and
the full range of opposition parties, in the cities and in
the rural areas, have taken to the streets and -- for the
first time in the Arab world -- ousted a dictator.

Tunisia has always had just the façade of democracy. Its
ruling party won every single seat in the parliament in
1989, and every directly elected seat in the 1994, 1999, and
2004 elections. President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali had been
in office since 1987, when he deposed the previous autocrat,
Habib Bourguiba. Ben Ali abolished the position of
"president for life," but then ran unopposed for president
in 1989 and 1994, and got 99.44 percent of the vote in 1999,
94.5 percent in 2004, and, running against three opponents,
89.6 percent in 2009.

The U.S. Government's annual human rights report summarized
the situation in Tunisia this way:
	"There were significant limitations on citizens'
	right to change their government. Local and
	international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
	reported that security forces tortured and
	physically abused prisoners and detainees and
	arbitrarily arrested and detained individuals.
	Security forces acted with impunity, sanctioned by
	high-ranking officials. There were also reports of
	lengthy pretrial and incommunicado detention.
	Government imposition of severe restrictions on
	freedoms of speech, press, and association worsened
	in the lead-up to the October [2009] elections. The
	government remained intolerant of public criticism,
	and there were widespread reports that it used
	intimidation, criminal investigations, the judicial
	system, arbitrary arrests, residential restrictions,
	and travel controls to discourage criticism."

Tunisia ranked number 154 out of 173 countries in the 2009
Reporters Without Borders list of World Press Freedom
rankings, down from 143 in the previous year. OpenNet
Initiative found that the Tunisian government engaged in
"pervasive" filtering of political and social internet
sites, using U.S.-made software.

Corruption by the president and his inner circle was
notorious. The U.S. Embassy reported, in a cable released by
WikiLeaks, that "one Tunisian lamented that Tunisia was no
longer a police state, it had become a state run by the
mafia." Commented the U.S. Ambassador in a secret cable:
"Whether it's cash, services, land, property, or yes, even
your yacht, President Ben Ali's family is rumored to covet
it and reportedly gets what it wants."

While political insiders have been living in luxury, life is
hard for the vast majority of Tunisians. In 2005 46 percent
of young college graduates did not have a job 18 months
after graduation; nearly 50 percent of Masters graduates and
graduates with advanced technician diplomas were unemployed.
And in response to pressure from the IMF and the World Bank,
government subsidies continue to be reduced or eliminated
from food and gasoline, squeezing even those who have jobs.

Despite Tunisia's record of repression, Washington has long
had "very good relations" (in the words of the State
Department's Background notes) with the country. The two
nations have "an active schedule of joint military
exercises." Tunisia is one of only five countries (the
others being Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Colombia) that
receive direct U.S. military aid.  In fact, as recently as
December 2010, when the uprising against Ben Ali was already
building, Congress authorized $12 million in "security
assistance" to the Ben Ali dictatorship.

On January 11 of this year, as demonstrations raged in the
country and the regime responded with lethal repression,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that the United
States "was not taking sides." And the French foreign
minister suggested that French police forces could help
police in Tunisia "appease the situation through law
enforcement techniques." Only after Ben Ali fled the country
did the White House, on January 14, finally condemn the
violence against peaceful demonstrators. Until then, support
of the Tunisian government was justified on the grounds that
it was a "partner against terrorism" and a "moderate" Arab
voice that did not join the Arab consensus against Israel's
oppression of Palestinians.

We call on Washington and Paris, the two major props of the
regime, to keep their hands off Tunisia, allowing the
Tunisian people to establish a society that provides full
democratic rights and social justice. We demand that the
Tunisian security forces end all acts of repression, and we
oppose any sort of military takeover. There must be no
interference with the right of Tunisians to create a new
civilian government through free and fair elections
involving all political parties. In addition, we call for an
end to IMF/World Bank pressure on Tunisia to reduce food and
gasoline subsidies. Such policies are typically
characterized by the U.S. as "reforms," but they only deepen
the misery of the Tunisian people.

Whether the toppling of the dictator will lead to
fundamental changes in Tunisia remains to be seen. But there
is no doubt that U.S.-backed autocrats throughout the Middle
East ought to be very worried. May this be an inspiration
for people seeking real democracy everywhere, from Egypt to
Jordan to Saudi Arabia ... to the United States.


Campaign for Peace and Democracy
www.cpdweb.org    
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