MER - Washington - 7 November 1997:

What the Israelis continue to do to the Palestinians is outrageous -- no question about it. But among the reasons the Arab "client regimes" don't seriously protest is that most of them practice forms of torture and repression against their own people in some ways worse than what the Israelis practice.

Of course the continual dispossession of the Palestinian  people creates a special situation; and it is long overdue that the international community intervene and completely condemn the "Apartheid peace" the Israelis and their American benefactors are promoting -- regardless of the Israeli use of Arafat and his well-paid associates to camaflouge their policies.

Even so, it is also important that the sadistic forms of torture and repression practiced by Arab governments be exposed and condemned. In the past MER has published articles dealing with terrible torture in Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region.

This time the information is about what is going on in Tunisia. Earlier this week a group of courageous Tunisian women protested against Tunisian government policies by picketing at the Tunisian Embassy in London and by releasing the information that follows:

As the Tunisian President celebrates his tenth year in power, our organization wishes to join prominent human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the International Federation of Human Rights in their condemnation of "the significant gap between the official discourse of the Tunisian government in favor of human rights and the dismal and painful reality of the systematic violations of the most fundamental liberties" and to draw attention to the:

- 3,000 prisoners of conscience (in a population of 9 million);
- tens of deaths in prisons under torture and due to deprivation of food and medical care: Three deaths in the last three months;

 systematic savage treatment of political prisoners: Amnesty International reports that : "Detainees are tortured by being suspended in contorted positions, having their heads plunged into buckets of water and chemicals while being suspended on a pulley, electric shocks, beatings especially on the head and genitals, and sleep deprivation for up to seven days.."; - targeting of women purely for their marital or other family relationships. Gross human rights violations against them are widespread despite the claimed support of women's rights:  interrogations, harassment, sexual abuse, rape, torture, dismissal from work;

- Anyone, including relatives, who gives wives of prisoners or exiled opponents any financial help is also liable to prosecution;

- dismissal of women from education and work solely for wearing the Islamic veil or even an ordinary headscarf, which the Tunisian government deems a criminal offence;

- persecution and harassment of exiled opponents, as well as systematic detention and ill-treatment of their relatives, including elderly men and women and children, and friends in Tunisia, resulting in physical and psychological illnesses;

- harassment of human rights activists, lawyers and journalists who are detained, prevented from activity, participation in conferences and traveling abroad. Cases include lawyer Nejib Hosni, a winner of various international human rights awards, who was harassed and prosecuted for a fabricated charge. and Mr. Khemais Ksila deputy chairman of the Tunisian human rights organisation LTDH.

We plead to you to support our campaign and provide it with the necessary media coverage that is crucial for its success.