Interview with Anouar Kousri, member of the LTDH Executive Committee

Today, some dozen LTDH divisions have been encircled by the police and are surveyed 24 hours a day, without any legal reason, while all activity has been forbidden since September 2005 when the Tunisian courts, which follow government orders, forbid us from holding our conference.
And yet, activists continue to rent premises, receive people and help them, and for them, this act of resistance is a victory in itself against the illegal police surveillance.
Our headquarters have been surrounded as well. We are surveyed by the police and only members of the directing committee can enter the building. Mail is not delivered often and is censored, and internet access is very difficult.
The League is not the only association in this situation. In fact, there are two types of associations in Tunisia: those which are recognised and supported - these are few in number and their autonomy is extremely limited - and those which are not recognised and which are harassed on a daily basis.
 
What must be done in order to make the right to associate possible in Tunisia?
 
The government must quite simply respect the right to associate. It is one of the basic foundations of any democratic country. A law on association was voted in Tunisia in 1959 and has been amended several times since. It provides for a declarative system, but in reality it is a totally liberticidal authorisation system that gives the government the power of life or death over associations.
For 15 years, no new independent associations have been created in Tunisia.
Moreover, on 10 December 2003, a new law on terrorism was voted and part of this law forbids de facto all financing. In case of violation, the penalties are very heavy.
But despite this, associations continue to exist and operate illegally.
 
What is the LTDH (Tunisian League for Human Rights) asking for today?
 
After the 2002 conference, the committee director succeeded in creating divisions throughout the country. Today we have 24 regional divisions which have become very active. This is a first for our organisation, which was founded in 1977. The government wishes to put an end to this momentum.
The government believes that the battle was won in September 2005, when it cancelled our conference. It affirms that the League suffers from internal problems in which it does not wish to get involved; yet it is the government which pulls strings and the police who prevent us from operating normally.
We are for talking with the government but the government does not want to talk.
Interview carried out in december 2007