Tunis Special Envoy - There are hard habits to lose, like that of throwing glances over his shoulder to see if it is followed. A blue cap pulled low over his head, Lourimi Ajmi, head of the Islamist student movement in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Tunis in the late 1980s, is no exception to the rule.Between April 6, 1991, the day of his arrest, May 27, 2007, the date of his release, he spent sixteen and a half years in prison. But today, Tuesday, January 18, it may appear as he wishes. His party, Ennahda, out of hiding. The fall of former President Zine El-Ali AbidineBen marks the end of a fierce crackdown against militants.
The regime has consistently presented to the Western world as a bulwark against "Islamic threat". So, like others, Lourimi Ajmi, 48, a clear look over a short beard, was caught short by the end of a reign as sudden qu'inespérée. "I was not sure, he apologized almost. We all knew that the social problem was a bomb, but we did not know when it would burst." We must rebuild everything in a hurry.
A provisional government is being formed, dependent for the latter to manage the business until the presidential and legislative elections in six months. But the leader of al-Nahda (Renaissance), Rached Ghannouchi, 70, lives in exile in London for over twenty years and the party has neither local newspaper or even after its closure in 1991.
Could not even know what it represents in numbers of supporters. Monday, January 17, Hamadi Jebari, its new general secretary and spokesman, has quietly met with Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi (an unrelated namesake with Rashid), yesterday politburo member of the ruling Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD), who chased the Islamists.
The two men discussed an amnesty law that would allow dozens of executives of al-Nahda and its leader, sentenced to death by Habib Bourguiba, the "father of independence", then pardoned by former President Ben Ali of Tunisia in return. "We do not want a return to Khomeini," says her Lourimi Ajmi, referring to the triumphant arrival in 1979 of Ayatollah in Tehran after the fall of the Shah of Iran.
Security conditions are far from being met in Tunis where there are still many police forces loyal to Mr. Ben Ali. "There may be a cons-revolution", warns senior officer of the Islamist party. Especially, Ennahda can not afford to give away the feeling of a movement to which he contributed little, but it has carefully analyzed.
"It was not a revolt of the hungry," said Hama Ben Slama, professor of Arabic literature and trade unionist. Rather "an intifada, uprising, revolution of dignity", as defined by her husband, Lourimi Ajmi. "The regime of Ben Ali was an example of a police state. Today, he enjoys the revolution Tunisia is an example for everybody." The remarkable presence at the start of the march on Tuesday in Tunis, Sadok Chourou, a leader of the party, does not alter this fact: the Islamists, although present in the demonstrations, have missed the movement that led to the flight of Mr.
Ben Ali. Closely monitored by the government, the mosques were not hotbeds of tension. "All, without exception, were pro-Ben Ali," slice Lourimi Ajmi. "It read speeches no different from those of the RCD, he quips. When we went out, we do not rush to go to demonstrations." Weakened, although Ennahda account regain a foothold in society, but she made her way cautiously.
"We are a centrist movement, moderate and peaceful, insists Ajmi Lourimi still graduate student in philosophy. We do not represent a threat, but we will be opposition. "Activists were encouraged by the leadership of al-Nahda to participate as possible to the vigilance committees that meet every night, young and neighbors to defend their neighborhood against the militia of the former president.
Mandraud Isabelle Article published in the edition of 20.01.11
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