ANOTHER 18 OCTOBER MEETING BLOCKED

C O N F I D E N T I A L TUNIS 000387

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

NEA/MAG FOR LAWRENCE, NEA/PI

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/21/2016
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KMPI KPAO KDEM TS
SUBJECT: ANOTHER 18 OCTOBER MEETING BLOCKED

REF: TUNIS 224

Classified By: Ambassador William Hudson for Reasons 1.4 b & d


1. (C) Summary: GOT security forces prevented a majority of
members of the 18 October Committee (18OC) from attending a
press conference held by the group on February 21. Although
there were reports that excessive violence was used, Poloff
witnessed the opposite: deliberate restraint by police
officers who physically blocked entrance to the location.
18OC member and Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) leader
Nejib Chebbi claimed that restrictions on freedom of assembly
and association in Tunisia were increasingly more severe, for
all independent civil society, but especially the 18OC.
Chebbi also said that PDP's party newspaper Al Mawkif would
not apply for a recently announced MEPI initiative to provide
funding for independent media in order not to give the GOT
yet another reason to further crack down on the party and
paper's activities. End Summary.


2. (C) Poloff attended a press conference of the 18 October
Committee at the headquarters of opposition party PDP in
downtown Tunis on February 21. The 18OC is an alliance of
disparate opposition political groups and activists which
grew out of the Movement of 18 October hunger strike
(reftel). The purpose of the press conference was to discuss
GOT-imposed restrictions on meetings of the 18OC and other
NGOs. As if to illustrate this complaint, almost all members
of the 18OC were prevented from entering the location by a
very large number of civilian-clothed police standing at
intersections of all contiguous streets. Poloff saw over 60
police on duty, despite the small turnout for the press
conference. From the PDP office where press conference
attendees sat waiting for the 18OC members to show up, Poloff
could see the police physically preventing these members from
entering. Poloff saw 18OC members Lotfi Hajji, Hamma
Hammami, Ayachi Hammami, Abderraouf Ayadi, and Samir Dilou
prevented from approaching the PDP office. Poloff did not
see any excessive force used, only human barricades of police
standing in the way. At one point Ayadi attempted to break
through a gathering of police, but the security official he
grabbed was seemingly careful not to use excessive force in
restricting his forward progress. At one point a security
official raised his hands, apparently to demonstrate he was
not acting violently, only blocking entrance to the building.
The 18OC members were arguing with the police throughout
this process, saying for example: "I am Tunisian, are you
telling me I can't move freely in my own country," and "I am
treated like a Palestinian in Israel."


3. (C) While the police prevented the entry of the majority
of 180C members into the PDP building, opposition party
Democratic Forum for Labor and Freedoms (FDTL) Secretary
General and Committee of 18 October spokesperson Dr. Mustapha
Ben Jaafar and Nejib Chebbi were allowed to enter, and
eventually the press conference commenced with a small
representation of the group. Approximately 6 journalists
attended, including AFP and BBC stringers, along with some
PDP members, activists, and a former spokesman of the banned
Tunisian Islamic party an-Nahdha, Ali Laaridh, who has
recently been released after a 15 year prison sentence. (One
of the journalists in attendance predicted that the policemen
were going to be in trouble for allowing Laaridh into the PDP
office, saying it was obvious they didn't recognize who he
was). Participants at the press conference could not explain
the seemingly random selection of which 18OC members were
permitted to enter the facility.


4. (C) During the press conference, Chebbi, Ben Jaafar, and
PDP opposition newspaper editor Rachid Hachana took turns
discussing the GOT-generated problems encountered in
arranging meetings for the 18OC group and its supporters,
including meetings in Tunis, Sousse and Sfax that had been
blocked by police. They also bemoaned the complete lack of
political freedoms for true opposition parties and
independent NGOs; touching on media and financial
restrictions, but ultimately focusing on the lack of freedom
of assembly and association. When mentioning media
restrictions, Chebbi mentioned that although the USG had
recently announced a MEPI program that finances independent
media, they (presumably PDP and Al Mawkif) would not apply so
as not to give the GOT yet another reason to crack down on
their activities. Chebbi also said that Al Mawkif's
distributor was under GOT pressure to cut in half the number
of copies of Al Mawkif distributed each week.


5. (C) Chebbi said that the role of opposition parties in a
democracy -- to provide critical input into a deliberative
process that would benefit all citizens -- was completely
invalidated by the GOT's suffocating security apparatus. A
PDP member who had arrived late said that he had witnessed
police "beating up" a couple of the 18OC members who had been
trying to enter. Poloff could not confirm this report. At
the conclusion of the press conference, Ben Jaafar announced
a demonstration in support of freedom of association to be
held February 24 at the headquarters of his FTDL party. On
February 22, the 18OC disseminated a communique calling all
Tunisians to attend a peaceful demonstration to support the
freedoms of association, assembly and expression, and calling
for an end to "judicial harassment against the Tunisian Human
Rights League, the Association of Tunisian Judges, and our
youth of Zarzis Ariana, Bizerte, etc." (NB The latter
category refers to multiple cases of young Tunisians arrested
on anti-terrorism charges whom human rights activists allege
were not given fair trials and who were allegedly tortured.)


6. (C) Comment: The 18OC members who were able to attend
the press conference were clearly frustrated and angry, but
seemed at least vindicated in their complaints, since the
journalists and HRoff only had to stand up and look out the
window to see the strong-armed GOT tactics which they were
describing in the press conference. All the speakers
emphasized that the restrictions on freedom of
assembly/association in Tunisia were increasingly more
severe, but especially the 18OC. Certainly the presence of
an-Nahdha/Islamist sympathizers in the 18OC (reftel) draws
particular GOT ire. It is likely that the GOT allowed Chebbi
and Ben Jaafar to attend the press conference due to their
status as heads of authorized political parties. Other 18OC
members who were prevented from entering were either members
of unauthorized parties and associations or were not
associated with any specific organization or party apart from
the 18OC.
HUDSON