EU MOVES -- SLOWLY -- AFTER BLOCKED LABOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L TUNIS 002480

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

NEA/MAG FOR HARRIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/02/2016
TAGS: PHUM PREL EU TS
SUBJECT: EU MOVES -- SLOWLY -- AFTER BLOCKED LABOR
CONFERENCE

Classified By: CDA David Ballard for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary. In early September, the GOT blocked a
prominent international NGO conference on labor and
employment issues, ostensibly because the organizers had not
given the GOT advance notification. Privately, GOT officials
made clear to the organizers, who included European NGOs, a
Spanish trade union, and the official Tunisian trade union,
that the GOT took issue with the participation of two
Tunisian activists and that the conference could have gone
forward in their absence. The EU and the member states
involved in this effort are protesting the GOT's action, both
in Tunis and in Brussels. End Summary.

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Conference Blocked
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2. (C) According to numerous sources, the GOT blocked the
"International Conference on Employment and the Right to Work
in the Euro-Mediterranean Region", which had been scheduled
for September 8-9 in Tunis. The conference had been
organized by the German Friedich Ebert Foundation, the
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, the Euromed Trade
Union Forum, and the Fundacion Paz y Solidaridad of the
Spanish Comisiones Obreras trade union in liaison with the
General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT). The conference was
to have included 70 participants from some 15 countries. The
Spanish Foreign Ministry's Agency for International
Cooperation financially supported the conference, which was
to be the culmination of a three-year Euromed Employment
research project. Two previous meetings were held in Morocco
and Jordan.


3. (C) In press interviews, Friedrich Ebert Foundation
official Ralf Melzer said that on September 6,
representatives of the Tunis hotel which had been reserved
for the event told the organizers that the hotel air
conditioning had broken down, and they would not be able to
hold the conference there. Organizers reportedly told hotel
managers that the group would manage without air
conditioning, but the hotel refused. Conference organizers
subsequently sought permission from "dozens of hotels in the
greater Tunis area" to hold the conference, but were
similarly denied. According to Melzer, one hotel employee
admitted that the hotels had received a notice from the
Ministry of Tourism forbidding them to host the participants
or the meeting. Finally, the UGTT allowed delegates that had
begun to arrive for the conference to stay at the UGTT-owned
Hotel Amilcar, but emphasized no formal meeting could take
place. Conference organizers met only briefly with
participants in the hotel lobby to explain that the
conference had been canceled.

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Why Was it Blocked?
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4. (C) In a September 27 meeting with Charge on other issues
(septel) Finnish DCM Krista Napoli, who was at the Hotel
Amilcar when would-be participants were informed of the
cancellation of the conference, said the venue was full of
plain-clothes police. According to Napoli, Tunisian
government officials offered to let the conference take
place, as long as two specific Tunisian participants --
Khemais Chammari, a prominent critic of the Ben Ali regime,
and Habib Guiza, a UGTT labor activist who recently briefed
Emboffs on his plans to start a breakaway union -- did not
participate. The European organizers refused the offer
outright. Napoli said that the organizers tried in vain to
find another venue in Tunisia for the confab.


5. (C) According to European Commission DCM Bernard Philippe,
the Europeans remain befuddled over the GOT's motivation in
blocking the conference, since it was to have focused on jobs
-- "the issue which is at the center of the partnership we
are trying to build." Moreover, according to Napoli,
conference organizers had invited three Tunisian cabinet
ministers, one of whom had confirmed his participation.
Another high-ranking Tunisian official (NFI) had sent a
letter conveying his best wishes for the success of the
conference. (Note: Press reports quote Melzer as saying

that three Tunisian ministers had been invited to attend and
had accepted, only canceling at the last minute. End Note.)


6. (C) Offering a slightly different perspective, Marc
Shade-Poulsen, another conference organizer -- from the
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, suggested that
Tunisian Interior Ministry officials had decided that they
"did not want to see trade unionists and human rights people
together." He dismissed the MOI claim, oft-repeated in the
media, that the Friedrich Ebert Foundation had failed to
submit advance notification of the conference, including an
agenda, documents, and a list of participants, in order to
obtain an appropriate permit for the conference. (NOTE: So
do we. It's more than ridiculous. There is no requirement
to submit any of that in the first place. END NOTE).


7. (C) UGTT secretary-general Mohammed Trebalsi was quoted
in the international press as saying that, although the UGTT
regretted the cancellation, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation
was to blame for poor coordination. However, in a press
release, the three European NGOs sponsoring the event said
"the organizers are convinced that the only reasonable
explanation for this turn of events was the intervention of
the Tunisian authorities. This is not the first time that
freedom of expression and assembly have been grossly violated
in Tunisian in recent times, in particular concerning
independent activities of civil society. The organizers are
shocked by this incomprehensible action of the Tunisian
authorities."

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An "Amazing Echo" in Europe
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8. (C) According to Philippe, the GOT's blocking action is
creating "an amazing echo" throughout the region and in
European capitals. He outlined the following steps that the
EU and its member states have taken or will be taking in
response to the incident:

-- The German Ambassador to Tunis hosted a lunch at his
residence for the two individuals whose participation in the
conference had prompted the GOT to block the conference --
Khemais Chemmari and Habib Guiza;

-- The Spanish Ambassador to Tunis expressed his
"dissatisfaction" over the turn of events to the MFA DG for
European Affairs, who reportedly pled ignorance.

-- There is agreement among the EU members that when they
gather with the Foreign Minister for their biannual luncheon
on the occasion of the changing of the guard of the EU
Presidency, this matter would be on the agenda (to take place
December 2006/January 2007); and

-- There will be a "Troika" demarche protesting the GOT
action to the Tunisian Ambassador in Brussels. This will be
accompanied with the release of a public statement
summarizing the EU protest (to take place "within the next
days").

Philippe said that he expected a delegation of six Tunisian
civil society activists who were currently visiting the
European Parliament to discuss Tunisian human rights issues,
to also protest the cancellation of the conference.

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Comment
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9. (C) The GOT's last minute cancellation of this
international conference underscores its overriding desire to
exercise complete control over political activity, or in this
case, even potentially political activity, since the
conference topic was not political in nature. The GOT has a
long track record of stifling freedom of association by
pressuring hotel managers to deny space to unauthorized or
politically sensitive groups or events. It also has a long
history of denying authorization for, or interfering in,
internationally sponsored events, including MEPI events,
which it cannot control to its satisfaction. We find it
curious, however, that the GOT would resort to such tactics

in this instance -- a high-profile, European-backed
conference representing the culmination of a multi-year
process. It is not clear whether the GOT simply
underestimated the extent of the EU reaction, or calculated
that European resolve, already challenged by intra-EU
differences over how hard to press Tunisia on human rights,
would fail to coalesce. One thing is clear: In the absence
of a strong EU reaction, we can expect similar GOT antics in
the future. It is thus all the more important that the
U.S.-EU reform dialogue continue, building on the September 6
USG/EU DVC, to create opportunities for joint responses to
this kind of GOT behavior.
BALLARD