LIBYA / TUNISIA Tunisia - opposition outlawed THE Tunisian regime has decided to crush all forms of opposition and will no longer tolerate the existence of organizations which are in the slightest degree independent. This is the real meaning of the amendments to the law on associations adopted by the Chamber of Deputies on March 2, 1992.
After having ferociously repressed the fundamentalist movement, the Ben Ali regime has attacked the revolutionary left, and has now turned its attention to the democratic associations and in particular the Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LTDH), guilty in its eyes of having dared to denounce (notably in two communiqués dated June 14, 1991 and December 12, 1991) the flagrant violations of human rights committed by the services of the Ministry of the Interior.
The new law envisages the banning of the simultaneous holding of responsibilities in an association and a political party, which would oblige the League to "dismiss" those of its leaders, elected by its congress, who are also leaders of political organizations. Moreover, an association will no longer be free to choose its members according to its own criteria of admission, in other words, the LDTH will no longer be able to refuse admission to members of the governing party.
On the other hand, membership of an association is henceforth forbidden to anybody who has been legally deprived of civil and political rights, which is the case of many militants who have spent time in the jails of Bourguiba and Ben All. If it does not submit to this law, the LTDH risks being dissolved.
But this possibility has not intimidated the LTDH's leaders: the National Council of the organization has denounced the new law and its president, Moncef Marzouki, said at a press conference that the League would "refuse to function under this law because it is unconstitutional" ; adding that "no law or court of justice can impose on an association its mode of functioning or forms of membership"
Moreover, a collective of associations (composed, alongside the League, of women's, students' and lawyers' associations) has just been set up to organize the response. A committee for the defence of the LTH has been set up in Tunis, at the initiative of intellectuals and militants of the democratic and left movement. Another committee has been formed at Kairouan. But in the context of the current state of demobilization which exists in Tunisia, these structures remain fragile, something of which the regime is aware.
This new repressive offensive demonstrates once more the purely demagogic character of the democratic professions of faith by Ben Ali and his acolytes and the urgent need for a campaign of international solidarity in support of the democratic movement and the Tunisian left in their fight against police repression. The Fourth International is already engaged in this struggle.
Telegrams of support to the LTDH (Fax: 216 1/793 874) and telegrams of protest to the President of the Republic directly at the
Palace of Carthage. * opening towards imperialism and who can count on the support of a section of the army officers. This combination of tribal complications with difficult political choices explains the bewildering variety of recent positions taken by Qhadafi.
The problem for the United States in Libya, as in Iraq, is their lack of a credible alternative to the existing regime: the CIA has made a start in this direction by supporting the contras of Colonel Haftar, directly advised by prince Bandar, Saudi ambassador to the United States. But the only really existing opposition in Libya remains that of the Muslim fundamentalists, the Wahhabites, who are not really to Washington's taste. * 6. El Ahram, December 7,1991. 7. Le Monde, April 8, 1992, interview with Abuziad Omar Dowda. 8. The Libyan government has deposits of $2-3 billion held abroad. Its total liquid holdings were estimated at $6.5 billion on September 30, 1991 (statisesimate is secure government has denied that this 5 tics from the Bank of International Settlements in Basle estimate is accurate). May 11, 1992 • # 228 International Viewpoint
IRAQ