[huridocs-tech] WSIS: Dispatch from Tunis: The Civil Society Summit That Wasn't

(Tunis, November 14, 2005) – Today as a global summit on the Internet got
underway, the Tunisian government did all it could to smother a local
summit on the same topic. One might think that a world conference on
improving global Internet access represents a prime chance for the
government to reverse its reputation for intolerance of dissent, but the
day’s events proved it to be an opportunity missed.

The streets and landmark buildings of downtown Tunis are festooned with
red national flags and portraits of President Ben Ali, while plainclothes
police patrol in large numbers outside almost every major hotel and at
known gathering points of Tunisia’s small human rights community.
Meanwhile, some 10 kilometers away in the northern suburb of Kram,
dignitaries, diplomats and members of accredited civil society and press
organizations gathered to attend preliminary parallel sessions of the
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), whose official sessions
open on November 16. But much of the Tunisian human rights community was
barred from the global conference and thwarted in attempts to meet
independently.
 
The government of Tunisia tolerates little dissent. Human rights
organizations operate under heavy restrictions, and many are denied legal
recognition by the authorities. Peaceful meetings of human rights
activists are often blocked by plainclothes police who forcibly disperse
would-be participants.
 
Cancelled venue 
Many Tunisian human rights organizations that might have participated
in WSIS could not for lack of formal legal status in Tunisia. For
this reason, they together with international human rights
organizations in town for the WSIS prepared to hold a parallel event
in Tunis called the Citizen’s Summit to debate the same issues that
would be discussed at the WSIS conference events. To that end, they
rented a venue at the Hotel Oriental Palace, a major hotel in Tunis,
and created a website with a schedule for the alternate summit. 
 
On November 10, the hotel notified organizers of the Citizen’s Summit that
the hall was no longer available, citing the sudden need for repair work
at that time. The abrupt unavailability of a venue for gatherings by
unauthorized groups has been part of a pattern of harassment, as has
forcible disruption of “unauthorized” assemblies by plainclothes police.
 
Police intimidation 
This morning at roughly 9 a.m., representatives of the organizations
planning the Citizen’s Summit planned to meet at the Goethe
Institute, a German cultural institute, in downtown Tunis, but were
prevented from entering by several dozen plainclothes police. The
police, who refused to identify themselves or give any explanation of
their actions, manhandled Tunisian and foreign activists, knocking
down several individuals as they pushed them along the streets. The
police also confiscated the camera from a Belgian television
cameraman who came to tape the scene, returning it without its
cartridge, and attempted to confiscate the camera from a Swiss
photojournalist, telling him it was forbidden to take pictures. 
 
Among those who were dispersed by the authorities were Souhayr Belhassen,
vice-president of the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights,
Sihem Bensedrine, Omar Mestiri, and Om Zied of the National Council for
Freedom in Tunisia (an unauthorized organization), Mahmoud Dhaouadi, a
member of the Union of Tunisian Journalists, (an unauthorized
organization), and representatives of Human Rights Watch (New York); the
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH, Paris), Front Line
(Dublin), the World Association for Community Radio Broadcasters
(Montreal), the Association for Progressive Communication (Johannesburg),
and the Human Rights Caucus of WSIS. Eventually, some of these delegates
were able to meet when a high-level German diplomat attending WSIS and a
Swiss diplomat personally hosted them at a nearby café. However, they had
to leave when the café owner informed them that police surrounding the
establishment said he would have to close it if they remained on the
premises.
 
A second event of the Citizen’s Summit scheduled for the afternoon was
also thwarted by Tunisian authorities. The Tunisian Association of
Democratic Women (ATFD) had organized a meeting under the auspices of the
Citizens Summit, on the theme of woman in the information society. They
had rented the Espace Téatro in the Hotel Mechtel. Three days ago, that
hotel official contacted the ATFD and informed it that the hall was no
longer available. The ATFD decided to hold the event instead at its
offices in downtown Tunis, at 5:00 pm. At that time, persons approaching
the office to attend were confronted by plainclothes police, who informed
them that the meeting was forbidden, and that they had orders to deny
access to the site. The meeting could not take place.
 
At approximately 10 p.m., Omar Mestiri, of the National Council for
Freedom in Tunisia, attempted to meet a Lebanese human rights activist
visiting Tunis for WSIS at a local hotel. Police at the entrance prevented
Mestiri from entering the building. After a brief confrontation, Mestiri
was detained for approximately 90 minutes at a police station before being
allowed to leave.
 
A select few 
The limited participation of Tunisian civil society in the WSIS
conference is reflected in the venue of the conference, in an
exposition park at a distance from the city center, reached via a
heavily guarded road. Only delegates with conference badges can even
approach the site. 
 
At a panel in the WSIS compound organized by Human Rights Watch today on
Internet censorship in the Middle East, the question-and-answer period was
dominated by individuals representing government-approved Tunisian
organizations, who praised the government and contested the
characterization of Tunisia as a country that practiced censorship and
surveillance. Human Rights Watch has documented Tunisia’s record with
regard to development and restriction of the Internet in a report to be
released November 15. The few truly independent Tunisian human rights
organizations that are accredited to the WSIS have stayed away, in
solidarity with those that are not accredited to attend. No representative
of Tunisian organizations that might have been able to share information
about Internet surveillance or censorship was present at the panel.
 
Throughout the day, access to the Web site of the Citizen’s Summit,
www.citizens-summit.org {http://www.citizens-summit.org}, was
intermittently unavailable in Tunisia. Tunisian human rights activists
have also reported difficulty accessing their usual email services.

Human Rights Watch Press release



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