An-Nahdha Movement of Tunisia
COMMUNIQUE
10 February 2000
In the last period, the state of social, political and regional tension has deepened in Tunisia as has the feeling of oppression and exclusion in vast sectors of the people, in particular at universities and colleges, and amongst workers, as a result of the strenuous living conditions and the widening circle of repression and rising record of the victims of the government’s policies. In this context, the South of Tunisia has for the past week been witnessing violent events following spreading news of the recent increases in the prices of petrol, transport and food, especially bread.
Protests started in the cities of Zarzis and Jerba by students at secondary schools and colleges, and were joined by other citizens. Protests then spread to Gabes, El Hamma, Gafsa and El Jerid. The authorities responded to these spontaneous protests with violence, resulting in tens of injuries and arrests, particularly amongst college students of Zarzis, which was transformed into a city under siege. Those arrested are reported to have been subjected to maltreatment and torture at police stations. The Capital and other cities also witnessed trade unionist protests, in particular the taxi drivers’ strike.
An-Nahdha Movement, which remains victim of a systematic eradication campaign due to its endeavours to expose the government’s policies and aberrations:
1. Declares its support for our people’s demands and legitimate aspirations to a free dignified life where its destiny is not dictated by a minority that monopolises national resources.
2. Pays tribute to our people’ resistance in the face of dictatorship, social injustice and economic corruption, and expresses its solidarity with our people in the South of Tunisia and in all regions of the country, calling upon students and workers to unify their ranks in defense of their rights, without resorting to violence or vandalising private or public property.
3. Calls upon the political elite not to lose yet another opportunity to support the people’s struggle and yearning for freedom and justice, adopt its demands and defend them, develop its initiatives and lead them, in order to put an end to injustice, and achieve the comprehensive national reconciliation that reinstates rights to the people, and for which the elite has sacrificed the vanguard of its members throughout the last four decades.
4. Warns the authorities against the danger of resorting to blind violence in their oppression of citizens, and calls upon them to review their policies, which are day by day driving the country towards explosion, and holds them responsible for all casualties.
5. Announces its readiness to engage in a genuine dialogue in order to salvage the country from the crisis generated by the government’s policy of eradication, calling for a general amnesty, the respect of liberties and the liberation of political life.
6. Calls all forces struggling for and defending human rights in the world to further action in support of the Tunisian people and its active forces in their struggle against dictatorship and corruption.
Rached Ghannouchi
An-Nahdha Movement
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