Although it is rather small, Colorado does have a Tunisian community of probably several hundred people. Myself, a former Peace Corps Volunteer and staff member in that country, now admittedly, nearly half a century ago, I reconnected with a group of them on a recent Saturday night for food and talk. The evening was rich in both, and triggered fond memories of the years I spent there, 1966 to 1968, some of the turbulent years of the 20th century, both in Tunisia and worldwide. But we were not there to reminisce, but to talk about the current state of affairs in the country. What began as a protest against high levels of youth unemployment in Tunisia`s interior has escalated into a national protest movement that has gone on for three weeks now and led to the deaths of about 30 people (20 of them on Saturday as we sat eating and talking in a Denver suburb). The protests challenge both Tunisia`s claim of being economically "an African lion" as one study puts it and an IMF poster child -- apparently the Tunisian economic miracle is something less than a miracle. It has also laid bare a country where corruption is endemic from the top down and where, for decades, repression has been used ever so freely to crush dissent and make a mockery of Tunisia`s claims of being a democracy.
RPCV Rob Prince writes: Tunisia explodes
Guest commentary: Tunisia explodes
By Rob Prince
Posted: 01/13/2011 01:00:00 AM MST
Caption: Protests in Tunisia. Ben Ali's departure celebration in Marseille, France. January 15th 2011. Photo: marcovdz Flickr Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Although it is rather small, Colorado does have a Tunisian community of probably several hundred people.
Myself, a former Peace Corps Volunteer and staff member in that country, now admittedly, nearly half a century ago, I reconnected with a group of them on a recent Saturday night for food and talk. The evening was rich in both, and triggered fond memories of the years I spent there, 1966 to 1968, some of the turbulent years of the 20th century, both in Tunisia and worldwide.
But we were not there to reminisce, but to talk about the current state of affairs in the country. What began as a protest against high levels of youth unemployment in Tunisia`s interior has escalated into a national protest movement that has gone on for three weeks now and led to the deaths of about 30 people (20 of them on Saturday as we sat eating and talking in a Denver suburb).
The protests challenge both Tunisia`s claim of being economically "an African lion" as one study puts it and an IMF poster child -- apparently the Tunisian economic miracle is something less than a miracle. It has also laid bare a country where corruption is endemic from the top down and where, for decades, repression has been used ever so freely to crush dissent and make a mockery of Tunisia`s claims of being a democracy.
The crisis began on Dec. 17 of this past year when local authorities in the interior town of Sidi Bouzid confiscated an "unauthorized" fruit and vegetable cart from a 26-year-old otherwise unemployed university graduate, the sole supporter of a family of eight, Mohammed Bouazizi by name. He was also roughed up, slapped around by local police. His attempt to file a complaint with the municipal authorities rejected, a distraught Bouazizi took a can of gasoline, poured it on himself and lit a match. Pictures of him, little more than a writhing fire ball in the heart of Sidi Bouzid have since circulated on the Internet.
Mohammed Bouazizi`s agony is also Tunisia`s.
His attempted suicide (he succeeded, although he survived another two weeks before dying) touched a raw nerve in the country. It ignited an unprecedented wave of protest in this North African country of 10 million, a frequent European tourist destination. Three weeks later, the protests which have been mostly peaceful, have yet to subside, this despite mounting police and army repression which has resulted in deaths, hundreds of arrests and widespread allegations of torture. Among the more recent developments:
95 percent of the country`s lawyers went on strike in support of the protestors, demanding that those arrested by treated in accordance with international law.
On Jan. 7, the Tunisian trade union federation, which had previously stayed on the sidelines came out in support of 'the legitimate demands` of the protestors. The 10-point program that the Union Generale Tunisienne de Travail (UGTT) put forth is the first coherent program for reform to appear.
On Jan. 8, confrontations between the security forces in Tala and Kasserine (the latter the site of the famous World War II battle) led to 20 protestor deaths and many wounded.
As the confrontation appears to widen, and the base of support of the regime of Zine Ben Ali narrows accordingly, the calls of the opposition have become increasingly political, including some for Ben Ali and his powerful wife Leila Trabelsi, to set down.
While U.S. economic interests in Tunisia are rather modest, compared with those of France and Italy, Tunisia is a strategic partner of the United States, participating in its African command, AFRICOM. The United Nations has documented that Tunisian intelligence and security forces participate in extraordinary renditions that the United States has initiated.
Such strategic considerations might explain the Obama Administration`s relative silence about the wave of repression the Ben Ali government has unleashed against its own citizens. True, finally after three weeks of protests, an anemic, generic statement of concern was issued by the State Department. But all indications are that beyond rhetoric, Washington is not going to press the Tunisian government to change its ways.
Thus the crisis will probably deepen.
Rob Prince is a Lecturer of International Studies at the Korbel School of International Studies. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer and Staff Member in Tunisia (1966-1968).
