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[MER - Throughout the Arab world today there is growing repression, state-violence, and torture. These matters can not be effectively fought individually. Groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, while useful, oftentimes (actually usually) take the easy way out -- they protest on the basis of human rights alone while not facing the political, social and economic realities that are really the underlying causes for the repression. Even more ominously, these "human rights" groups usually overlook or minimize how much the U.S. and European governments are oftentimes working closely with the regional governments that perpetrate these brutally repressive and sometimes sadistic policies and practices. Consequently, it is often the case that for every individual case Amnesty or HRW take on, there are hundreds and thousands of other cases they never get involved with. In the end, it has to be understood, these matters are not really about "human rights", but rather about basic political, social, and economic rights. In short, the peoples of the Middle East are seeking their self-determination and their freedom -- but in order to control their resources and markets, and in order to allow Israel to remain the dominant military power in the region, western-sponsored "client regimes" are kept in power regardless of their brutality toward and suppression of their own people. Given this context, we are nevertheless sending out FYI this appeal from a Tunisian woman now living in England concerning her brother. What's vital to understand of course is that there are hundreds and thousands of brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, friends and family, precisely being treated in these ways not only in Tunisia but throughout today's Middle East.

[London - 6 March 1997]   I am a Tunisian refugee in Britain. I fled the country on December 22, 1994 to seek refuge from ill-treatment, imprisonment, brutal torture and continuous threats of rape and sexual harassment by police forces and State Security agents.

My story started with the brutal repression of the Student Movement on May 8, 1991 in which many students were shot by political police inside their universities. As I was a Students representative at the University of Mannouba, I was arrested between 1991 and 1992, and imprisoned three times during which I was subjected to long sessions of beating on my face, hands, arms, legs and back. I was hit with sticks all over. I was underfed. and had to sleep on the floor in an isolated cell. Upon release from prison, the authorities imposed on me a sort of administrative control. Between 1992 and 1994, I had to report to two police stations three days a week. I was followed everywhere by a state security agent. I was dismissed from my job as a teacher of English, arrested and interrogated each time I went to the faculty where I was pursuing my high studies and if I failed to report for any reason, they would send after me and break into my lodging any time they wished in order to terrify me.

They would also break into my family's house anytime during the day and very late in the evening. Police forces and state security agents kept also sending after my parents, my brothers and sisters, questioning and torturing them. Their houses have been put under surveillance; their phone numbers have been tapped . My life there was, therefore, turned into a nightmare. I was suffering from anxiety, restlessness, insomnia and depression when I left the country.

As part of the revenge policy adopted by the current regime, psychological and physical torture has been a routine for my family members. My mother has been suffering from blood pressure. My father has gone through a number of heart attacks. Finally, my eldest brother Mr. Mohammed Habib Hemissi (aged 44, married and father of four children), a teacher who had been working in Saudi Arabia since 1981, was arrested on July 19, 1996 in Tunis Cartage airport on his return to the country. He was kept in the Ministry of Interior more than two weeks during which he was subjected to torture. Then, he was transferred to the "9th April" prison where he is now waiting for the court's decision on March 13, 1997.

My brother had no political activity. His only crime was to attend my wedding on April 15, 1995 in London. And before him his wife Mrs. Aziza Hemissi, who had attended herself my wedding, was taken to the Ministry of Interior many times where she was questioned and tortured by State Security agents who also confiscated her passport.

I put this appeal into your hands hoping that you will send an observer to the trial and intervene with the Tunisian President so as to, immediately and unconditionally, release my brother who will be tried on March 13, 1997 at the primary court of Tunis ( Case N: 24428/13) and stop torturing and harassing my family members who have no political activities.

Yours Faithfully

Mrs. Monjia Abidi

Email: 100637.1271@CompuServe.COM

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