For the first time since 1987, Tunisians can brag that they say whispered for years: Zine El-AbidineBen Ali, the man who has run for nearly a quarter century, was a dictator. They ended up hating the point of wanting her dead. Leaders of the three Maghreb countries, Ben Ali was probably the most hated by his people.Even those who took advantage of the "system" the honnissaient. But all were silent, overwhelmed by fear. Afraid of losing privileges and a certain comfort for some. Fear of being beaten, thrown in jail, tortured, for others. Only a handful of defenders of human rights has escrimée during these twenty-three years, trying to let the world know the true face of Tunisia Ben Ali seized liberties, corruption, inequality and justice manipulated.
But officials of the international community, starting with the Elysee and the Quai d'Orsay, remained deaf to these cries for help, denying the obvious. As for foreign tourists (5 million annually), which were open for a few hundred euros a sunny week in the land of jasmine, they left most of them without knowing anything about the reality of Tunisia, as contacts with the population were reduced .
Yet the warning signs were not lacking. Some remember the hunger strike of journalist Taoufik Ben Brik, in April 2000. But who still remembers the operation "mum" of lawyer Mohamed Abbou, jailed for writing an article online hostile to President Ben Ali? On the eve of the World Summit on the Information Society, organized by the United Nations in Tunis in November 2005, the young lawyer had sewn his mouth for four days using staples.
In a letter to the depths of his prison to his friends, Mohamed Abbou explained the reasons for his gesture to draw attention to the "plight" of a country "have to shut up" to eat and avoid " retaliation for a dictatorship of the most ferocious. When Ben Ali came to power Nov. 7, 1987, yet he is welcomed as a savior.
In dismissing the gentle father of the nation, Habib Bourguiba, who had become senile, who was then Prime Minister releases Tunisians than thirty years of "Bourguibism" and an end to chaotic reign. This military training, also a graduate of electronics - a hobby - we do not know so much.
The newcomer is silent. He grows even mystery. "It was a strategy to better hide that he had nothing to say!" Said abruptly one of his former superiors. Throughout his career, Ben Ali will in any case, to demonstrate ability. From 1958 to 1974 he was director of military security. After the failure of the Tunisian-Libyan union to which he is alleged to have been involved, he was exiled as military attache in Rabat, Morocco.
He returned three years later in Tunis, the security directorate. It is without qualms that mate events in January 1978. New exile in April 1980 under pressure from Wassila Bourguiba (the old president's wife), he was dismissed from his post as chief of security. "On hearing the news, he fell unconscious from his chair in the office of Interior Minister.
Then I measured the psychological fragility. It has always been fragile, contrary to appearances," said one witness at the scene. Ben Ali is then sent to Warsaw as ambassador. Four years later, there he is recalled to Tunis. The "bread riots" just happened. We need this man of order. In October 1984 he was appointed secretary of state for national security.
"A soldier who congratulated him, he responded:" This time, it will be difficult for me to leave the Department of the Interior "," reported one witness. It was from that moment that Ben Ali spins its web on Tunisia. To achieve its ends, the military police will become stirring the Islamist bogeyman.
Became interior minister in 1986, he did not hesitate to declare, at the first cabinet meeting in which it participates, stunned his colleagues: "In our struggle against the Islamists, we must use two methods: the misinformation and offenders. We'll get them out of prison for their assigned police duties.
" The system Ben Ali was born. It will only grow stronger over time, to make the atmosphere breathable. After his accession to the palace of Carthage, the new president implements his letter to the strategy defined above. It makes hunting Islamists. Then he attacks the left, and finally to all Tunisian Democrats.
The press is muzzled, the multi-forbidden - except opposition of scenery - the freedom of association and confiscated justice manipulated. Everyone lived under the reign of the arbitrary. Anyone who bristled exposed to reprisals of all kinds, the most violent to the meanest: beatings in order, confiscated passports, telephone lines cut, Internet mail diverted, homes ransacked, burglarized, or local professional campaigns filthy insults , especially against women.
For example, Bensedrine, a leading figure in the fight for freedom, is found in May 2005, the real target calls for the stoning and Achourouq launched by Al-Hadath. These two Arabic newspapers with wide circulation call this journalist of 55 years of "prostitute", "creature of the devil" and "hateful viper." All Tunisian opponents of Khemais Chammari the lawyer Mokhtar Trifi, president of the Tunisian League of Human Rights - prevented from functioning in the last ten years - have been subjected to such hate campaigns from the gutter press, on the initiative of the Palais de Carthage and immovable adviser and chairman of the cursed soul: Abdelwahab Abdallah.
Between submission and revolt, the Tunisian society oscillates. But the system Ben Ali, mix of patronage and intimidation works. In the West, it boasts the "Tunisian economic miracle". And it is true that this small country, devoid of hydrocarbon resources, is quite well managed. The annual growth of around 5%.
A high honorable but insufficient to absorb the 60,000 new graduates each year who arrive on the market. Instead of taking the measure of danger, Ben Ali continues to use the educational system as "a demagogic tool of governance" and to issue diplomas to quasi-literate ", as summarized Dimassi Hassine, professor of economics at University of Sousse.
Anger and frustration are growing among the people who were promised prosperity in exchange for forfeiture of freedoms. While the Trabelsi clan, named Leila, the second wife of the head of state, does business - real estate, telephony, transport, tourism, banking ... - And steals the country's wealth, the population was furious to be excluded from the system.
Over the years, everything seemed more and more unbearable: unemployment, low wages, favoritism, extortion of petty officials (including police), the countless indicators, the obligation to join the party power, the Constitutional Democratic Rally, to benefit from a job, a scholarship, a building permit ...
The resentment is growing, but it takes time before win on fear. The attacks of September 11, 2001 the U.S. will be a boon to President Ben Ali, while the camp of the Democrats and activists of human rights began to score points. In the name of combating terrorism, civil liberties are further crippled.
Meanwhile, Ben Ali amended the Constitution every five years to remove the presidential election any potential rival. It connects and five terms, each time collecting at least 90% of the vote. Deaf, blind or cynical, the European Union, led by France, he demonstrates a strong support at the risk of contributing to what it claims to fight: the rise of Islamism.
"The first right of man is to eat (...). From this point of view, Tunisia is far ahead of many countries, "said Jacques Chirac, during an official visit to Tunis in December 2003, even though the lawyer Radhia Nasraoui is in its 50th day of hunger strike. Nicolas Sarkozy is not better when it comes to Tunisia in April 2008.
"The space for freedoms progresses," comments there before a beaming Ben Ali. In the ranks of the opposition and activists of human rights, each of these sentences is seen as a dagger and a betrayal. One more. Florence Beauge Article published in the edition of 16.01.11
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