Communique

Harassment and Repeated Attacks against Sihem Ben Sedrine.

On the evening of December 8, 1999 a bizarre robbery took place at the headquarters of the `Aloes' Publishing Co. This business is managed by Madame Sihem Ben Sedrine, founding member of the National Council of Tunisia for Civil Liberties (Conseil national pour les libertes en Tunisie) and a former leader of the Tunisian League of Human Rights (la Ligue tunisienne des droits de l'homme). Unknown parties broke in and vandalized the place, blowing up the wooden entrance and spreading gasoline around. Strangely enough, the robbers neglected to take anything within, not even the money that was sitting on top of Mme. Ben Sedrine's desk. Mme. Ben Sedrine immediately filed a complaint with the local police, who came to investigate the incident.

A somewhat surrealistic scenario then unfolded. The local police chief warned Mme. Ben Sedrine of some potential risks, spccifically, that such intruders might return in the future and plant drugs. In response, Mme. Ben Sedine wrote a letter to the Minister of the Interior informing him that she took the police chief's warning concerning the drugs seriously and reminding the minister of his responsibility to keep his security personnel and those working with the security forces under control. In the same letter she called on the Interior Minister to launch an inquiry into the affair to shed light on the identity of the perpetrators.

On December 30, 1999, the vandalism was repeated. The offices of the Aloes Publishing Co were again sacked but this time the visitors took care to cart off the companies computers, printers, scanners and company archives on CD ROM discs). Once again Mme. Ben Sedrine filed a complaint with the police. Then on January 4, 2000 she also wrote a second letter to the Minister of the Interior in which she accused a section of the secret police (police politique) of being behind this last provocation and of having persecuted her for 8 years using `irregular procedures' alternating threats with punitive actions.

It is useless to point out that the perpetrators of these two attacks remain at large. This case resembles those of Mme. Radhia Nasraoui and the journalist Taufik Ben Brik who was physically attacked. Those who attack human rights activists in Tunisia are never apprehended or punished. They always seem to be able to commit these deeds with total impunity of the law.

The Tunisian Committee for the Respect of Civil Liberty and Human Rights knows who profits from such crimes. It knows, given their inability to silence human rights activists, that the Tunisian authorities have resorted to plots of collective punishment for several years now. Their goal is to isolate human rights activists through whatever means necessary by preventing them from pursuing their professional careers, attacking their children, terrorizing their parents. These methods of `state banditry' are unfortunately widespread throughout the country, the goal being to wear down and break the will of government opponents and human rights activists.

Mme. Ben Sedrine is one of the victims of this political strategy. All means are used to break her spirit. To smear her reputation a photo album of her in `pin up' has been circulated. Her car has been sabotaged, her daughter's dog poisoned, she and her family have been subjected to a permanent police surveillance. A number of the employees at the Aloes Publishing Co. were threatened by the secret police that "failure to cooperate" would result in dire consequences for them.

But as these methods have failed, the new plan is to deprive Mme. Ben Sedrine of all her means of support and material resources as well as those of her family. This plan was already functioning by May 1999 in the aftermath of judicial proceedings against her husband, Omar Mestiri, general secretary of the National Council of Tunisian Civil Liberties. Mestiri has been denied permission to leave the city of Tunis. As a result he is restricted from visiting a farming enterprise he runs some 35 miles (60 km) from Tunis. The December 30 vandalism was a way of eliminating the couple's only remaining source of revenue which they earned from publishing.

The Tunisian Committee for the Respect of Civil Liberty and Human Rights condemns these scandalous attacks against those working a the Aloes Publishing Co. It expresses its complete solidarity with Mme. Ben Sedrine. It calls on the Tunisian authorities to open a serious investigation to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice. These acts once again reveal the complete indifference of the Tunisian authorities to pursue those who violate human rights in the country. The committee reminds the government that the struggle against this indifference remains one of the fundamental basis of the rule of law in the country. The committee calls on human rights and free press activists to support Mme. Ben Sedrine. It makes a special appeal to French and foreign publishers to actively express their condemnation of this attack which one of their colleagues has suffered.

To contact Mme. Sihem Ben Sedrine:
Tel/Fax: 2161 565538 (it is possible that the telephone will be disconnected in the near future)

Send your protest telegrams to:
President of Tunisia
M. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Tel/Fax 00 2161 742513
00 2161 744721

Paris, January 9, 2000