TUNISIA: INTERFERENCE IN USG ACTIVITIES ON RISE;

C O N F I D E N T I A L TUNIS 002408 SIPDIS SIPDIS FOR NEA/MAG (HARRIS) E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/20/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM TS SUBJECT: TUNISIA: INTERFERENCE IN USG ACTIVITIES ON RISE; EDITORIALS DECRY DEALINGS WITH "SUPERPOWER EMBASSIES" REF: TUNIS 622 Classified By: CDA David Ballard for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary. Embassy personnel are increasingly subject to GOT interference in their meetings and activities, the result of a culture of paranoia about dealing with foreign governments that appears to have spilled over from the MOI. While the phenomenon itself is not new, or targeted only at the U.S. Embassy, the GOT's tactics have intensified beyond the "usual," i.e., overly bureaucratic GOT approach to the U.S. and other embassies. The new tone includes, but is not restricted to, excessive requests for diplomatic notes, unanswered or canceled meeting requests, or demands for GOT "permission" for Embassy officers' in-country travel. In one recent case, an impersonator intercepted an Embassy invitation to a Tunisian human rights activist. In an apparent effort to sever ties between this individual and the Embassy, the impersonator stated that he no longer wished to receive invitations to Embassy functions. Even more troubling, on September 19 three Arabic language dailies simultaneously published editorials denouncing "so-called civil society activists" who deal with "superpower Embassies" as traitors. The content of one of these editorials was clearly drawn from an intercepted telcon placed by PolFSN. Thus, there is little doubt that these incidents reflect conscious GOT policy and are not isolated events. Charge will continue to protest GOT interference with the activities of the Embassy; the level of harassment has now reached a level where Washington's intervention is also warranted. See suggested talking points, para 7. End Summary. -------------- GOT Interference in Embassy Meetings, Activities: Examples of a Troubling Trend -------------- ¶2. (C) Over the course of the past couple of months, Embassy personnel have been subjected to a pronounced increase in the breadth and intensity of GOT interference in their activities, particularly but not exclusively during visits outside the capital of Tunis. Below is a representative list of such GOT actions, in chronological order, along with the "excuses" proffered by the GOT, when such actions have been protested: -- The most high-profile instance was the GOT's de facto cancellation of Charge's planned August 1 visit to Mahdia to visit an Embassy-organized English language teaching workshop. Charge was in Sfax on July 31 visiting DOD Humanitarian Assistance projects and opening a DOD-funded language lab at a Tunisian Air Force base when he received calls from the MFA Chief of Protocol and the Director General for the Americas and Asia. Both tried to convince Charge that it would be better for him not to go to Mahdia the next day to visit the workshop. In long and rather contentious conversations, Charge refused to accede to the request that he not visit a USG-sponsored and -funded project. In the event, however, he did not go, because the Tunisian co-hosts of the workshop told Embassy reps that they would suffer negative consequences if he did. During the phone calls and in subsequent MFA meetings to complain about attempts to control our movements, MFA interlocutors gave a shifting range of excuses for blocking the Charge's travel, including a) because of anger over what was happening in Lebanon, the GOT wanted to "protect" Charge from the critical comments about U.S. policy that he would no doubt hear from his interlocutors; b) vaguely defined security concerns (Note: MFA reps backed off immediately when asked if there was a threat they had not informed the Embassy about. Even so, Tunisian Ambassador to Washington used this same excuse with NEA/MAG Office Director, claiming that Tunisia was a country "under threat." End Note.); c) subsequent apology in the form of a Dip Note that explained that the Embassy's travel request had not been submitted in time to permit the MFA to carry out unspecified necessary formalities prior to the visit. (Note: Embassy had not asked for any official meetings. End Note); and d) the national three-day mourning period for Lebanese casualties in effect at the time specifically called for the cancellation of all cultural activities. (Note: Embassy reminded the MFA that the English language teaching workshop that Charge had intended to visit was not canceled. End Note.) Post sent a Dip Note requesting that the MFA provide it with a written explanation of any regulations that govern EmbOffs' travel in Tunisia. To date, there has been no formal answer. (Comment: It appears that the MOI learned of the Charge's trip only after he was already in Sfax, and, panicking because they had no prior knowledge of his movements, reflexively put pressure on the MFA to stop the rest of the trip. MFA sources (protect) essentially told EmbOffs as much by confessing, "You know we are not behind these requests, but we need to know about your plans ahead of time so that we can convince others that what you are doing is okay." End Comment.) -- During a September 5-8 trip to Sfax, EconCommercialOff and CommercialFSN were confronted with range of obstacles. Even contacts at non-governmental entities, like the local Chamber of Commerce, insisted on Dip Notes or other evidence of GOT "permission" for the meetings to take place. When Charge brought this matter to the attention of the MFA, he was given assurances that it was not necessary either to inform the GOT of EmbOffs' in-country travel or to seek GOT authorization for same. Nonetheless, Sfax contacts remained reluctant to engage. Of those who did agree to meet with EmbOffs, two separate contacts later called off their meetings, coincidentally offering the same excuse that they had to visit a sick relative in the hospital. (Note: This phenomenon is not new: If an Embassy officer travels out of town on official business and declines to send a Diplomatic Note informing the MFA of her/his travel, meetings s/he had scheduled at her/his destination are frequently canceled due to "scheduling problems." End Note.) Those meetings that did take place were subjected to intrusive surveillance by plain-clothes police. Indeed, every morning one of the detailed police officers would aggressively question CommercialFSN about the exact program scheduled for that day. The policemen went everywhere EmbOffs did; dining at the same restaurants, they apparently expected the restaurants to pick up their tabs. -- FSI Arabic Field School language students and FSN instructors on a September 5-9 field trip to the south of the country (Tamerza, Nefta, Tozeur, and Kairouan) were accompanied by a phalanx of plain-clothes policemen, whose invasive surveillance tactics included trying to sit in on the group's lectures. (Note: The policemen did back off, when asked to do so. End Note.) These policemen, too, expected restaurants patronized by the FSI group to feed them free of charge. -- On September 13, Hassan Soukni (protect) an Embassy contact in the Prime Minister's office, called PolFSN to inform him that "unscheduled commitments" precluded a meeting with PolEconCouns which was to have taken place the next day. When pressed, Soukni admitted that he had been instructed to break off the meeting. He offered to meet with PolEconCouns and PolFSN outside of normal working hours. -- There has been one known incident in which an Embassy invitation was intercepted by a man impersonating the intended invitee, a human rights activist and member of the National Council on Liberties in Tunisia (CNLT),an "unauthorized" NGO. When an Embassy driver attempted to drop off the invitation, the impersonator told the driver that he did not want anything to do with the Embassy and to please stop inviting him to Embassy functions. Sensing that something was amiss, Protocol FSN called the invitee to inquire about the incident. The invitee said that he had had no such interaction with the Embassy driver, and that he assumed the impersonator was the plain-clothes policeman stationed outside his residence. -- On the margins of a September 18 round-table discussion hosted at the U.S. Embassy to which many human rights and opposition activists were invited, some activists noted the presence outside the Embassy of several "political police," beyond the usual complement of Tunisian police officers assigned to protect the U.S. Embassy. ¶3. (C) These incidents follow a campaign of speeches in mid-March by high-level GOT officials, including the primus inter pares counselor Presidential Counselor and Spokesman Ben Dhia, as well as the Interior Minister, rebutting the premises of USG reform policy in Tunisia (reftel). These officials warned Tunisians not to associate with foreign embassies and described as disloyal those who do. -------------- Latest Twist: Newspaper Commentaries Deter Interactions with "Superpower Embassies" -------------- ¶4. (C) As evidence that the actions described above reflect conscious GOT policy rather than isolated incidents, three Arabic-language Tunisian newspapers on September 19 ran commentaries disparaging Tunisian opposition members who accept invitations from "superpower foreign embassies" and/or contribute to their reports. All three articles made it clear that Tunisian citizens' contacts with our Embassy should be seen as treasonous. Moreover, two of the three editorials closed with impassioned pleas to the GOT to stop ignoring this behavior and take (unspecified) actions against those who get close to foreign diplomats. In addition, the content of the editorial in Al-Hadath newspaper, which is openly referred to as a mouthpiece for the MOI, was clearly drawn from an intercepted telcon between PolFSN and a civil society activist. PolFSN was setting up a meeting for PolOff, who is working on this year's Human Rights Report. Relevant text from the article follows: "We have noticed that a certain number of so-called Tunisian opposition leaders and, in particular, some activists from insignificant political parties and NGOs who are, in reality, unscrupulous ambitious individuals disguised under civil society activities, do not hesitate for a moment to receive invitations from embassies of superpower countries in Tunis to attend festivities, receptions and sometimes volunteer to help embassies, officials prepare their 'intelligence' reports about Tunisia's internal affairs. In fact, one of the dismissed judges when asked by one of the employees of one of the superpower embassy's officials to meet with him in the framework of his preparations for a report about our country, did not hesitate one single moment to accept to meet with him. He even suggested to warmly receive the concerned official at his house and promised to invite to the meeting some lawyers who are active members of one of the NGOs with Islamist tendency. This dismissed judge did even suggest, in addition, providing this embassy's official with documents and information necessary for the elaboration of the report." -------------- Incidents Symptomatic of an MOI-MFA Divide? -------------- ¶5. (C) At the policy level, this culture of suspicion is manifested in a lack of coordination between the MOI and the MFA on a host of important bilateral issues. For example, the MOI has opened an investigation into a Tunisian MEPI grantee for receiving foreign funds. The grantee is the University of Tunis' institute for teaching journalism. The MFA has long been aware of this grantee's MEPI funding and, of course, USG funding is behind many projects in Tunisian universities and think tanks across the country. It is clear that the source of the funding -- MEPI -- and the sensitivity of the activity -- starting a student newspaper -- prompted this investigation. -------------- Comment and Suggested Talking Points -------------- ¶6. (C) As stated above, this phenomenon is not new, nor is Embassy Tunis the only embassy subject to these kinds of shenanigans. For example, Tunisian authorities on September 8 blocked an international labor conference organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which was to have included about 50 participants from NGOs in 13 countries. What is new is the breadth and intensity of GOT harassment, which according to a working-level contact at the MFA (protect),is indicative of the MOI-centered culture of suspicion now spilling over into the MFA's traditional area of operations. To be sure, the publishing of a newspaper commentary based on a private -- but clearly monitored -- telcon between an Embassy employee and an outside contact takes the harassment to a new level and should not go unanswered. Charge has made it a habit to protest such GOT actions when they occur. This same MFA contact has suggested that, in order to get the attention of GOT policy makers, these protests should also be made by senior USG officials in Washington. ¶7. (SBU) Suggested Talking Points: -- Relations between U.S. Embassy and some GOT entities are suffering from an overly suspicious approach on Tunisia's part. -- For example, U.S. diplomats face excessive requests for diplomatic notes; requests for meetings between U.S. Embassy officials and GOT officials go unanswered; contacts both inside and outside government seem to be fearful of meeting with Embassy officers at all levels without "permission;" in some cases, there is even GOT pressure on individuals not to meet with Embassy officials; there have been strong insinuations from the GOT that Embassy officers of all levels should be requesting "permission" to travel on official trips within Tunisia; and there is intrusive surveillance when they do travel. -- Recent rhetoric from high-level GOT officials has described Tunisian citizens who seek support from foreign Embassies as disloyal. -- None of this is reflective of the positive bilateral relationship that our two countries enjoy. -- We have even had brought to our attention an incident in which an Embassy invitation to a Tunisian was intercepted by an individual impersonating that invitee. This impersonator told the driver that he wanted nothing to do with the Embassy and to please stop inviting him to Embassy functions. -- Even more offensive is the fact that, on September 19, three Tunisian newspapers published commentary that warned against interactions with "Superpower Embassies." All three articles made it clear that Tunisian citizens' contacts with our embassy should be seen as treasonous. Moreover, the editorial in Al-Hadath newspaper was clearly drawn from an intercepted phone call between an Embassy employee and an outside contact. We simply cannot tolerate this kind of interference. -- I know our Charge has protested these kinds of measures several times in the past, but I want you to know that we here in Washington are also concerned. -- I would also note that we do not treat Tunisian diplomats in Washington this way. Imagine if we suggested that the Tunisian Ambassador should request permission from us to travel to Los Angeles for the upcoming exhibit of Tunisian mosaics at the Getty Museum, or if we asked the Pentagon not to meet with anyone from the Tunisian embassy without permission from the Department of State. -- It was not so long ago that our diplomats enjoyed the privilege to interact freely in your society, including with officials of the Tunisian government. I strongly urge your government to relax these restrictive and intrusive policies and help us return to a mutually beneficial environment. BALLARD