TUNISIA: France's attitude toward crackdown raises eyebrows

When 26-year-old Iranian demonstrator Neda Agha-Soltan died on video in the streets of Tehran during the wave of post-election protests that rocked Iran in 2009, France reacted with fury and was quick to denounce crackdowns by security forces on demonstrators.

And when Tunisia, a former French colony, began to violently repress protests against the reign of a long-ruling autocrat, France took a strong stance as well -- in tacit support of the oppressor.

In the North African country, ruled by Paris' longtime ally President Zine el Abidine ben Ali, who departed from office Friday, escalating violence and police crackdowns on demonstrators have claimed scores of lives in recent weeks. The turmoil and repression there, however, have so far only triggered muted reactions and cryptic media statements from Paris.

"Rather than issuing anathemas, I think our duty is to make a calm and objective analysis of the situation," French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie was quoted by French media reports as telling Parliament this week when she came under criticism from the opposition over France's restrained reaction to the riots and crackdowns in Tunisia.

Alliot-Marie reportedly even cited a possible "security cooperation" deal between Tunisia and France, something for which she was scorned by top French Socialist Party member Jean-Marc Ayrault on Thursday. He said her remarks were of a low character and that the departure of Tunisian President Ben Ali from power was inevitable.

The French government's attitude toward the situation in Tunisia, compared with its strong denunciations of other countries around the world engaged in repressive behavior, has puzzled and even angered observers. Some go so far as to say that Paris' silence on the repression in Tunisia makes it complicit in the crackdown which, according to official reports, has claimed the lives of dozens of people.

The video below purportedly shows Tunisian security forces vandalizing stores, in what some say was an attempt by them to blame the destruction on demonstrators. 

 

The high number of deaths and France's attitude toward ongoing clampdowns appear also to have upset French nationals with North African roots. In Marseille, a city with a large North African immigrant population, between 700 and 1,000 people marched in the streets Wednesday in support of the Tunisian people -- reportedly shouting "murderer Ben Ali" in reference to the Tunisian president -- and some protestors denounced France's idle response to the turmoil.

"We no longer have the right to be afraid, we are here for the Tunisians," Abdesslem Bayaoui, whose family lives in the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid where the protest movement began, told Agence France-Presse (link in French)." French President Nicolas Sarkozy "speaks for everyone, but now he says nothing while the people suffer."

As clashes between protesters and security forces reached the Tunisian capital Wednesday, with reports of violence overnight and more deaths in various Tunisian cities, the first secretary of the opposition French Socialist Party, or PS, Martine Aubry, called on France to take a tougher stance toward the Tunisian authorities.

"I would like to say to the Tunisian people that it has the full support and solidarity of the PS, and we ask that France adopt a strong position condemning the unacceptable repression,"  she was quoted as saying in French media reports (link in French).

It wasn't until Thursday -- about a month into the riots -- that France finally broke its silence over the violence in Tunisia as gunshots rang out in the center of the Tunisian capital. During a visit to London, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon denounced what he said was the "disproportionate" use of force by authorities against Tunisian demonstrators and  called on all sides to "show restraint, according to the Reuters news agency. His remarks were considered the strongest criticism yet by France of Ben Ali's authoritarian rule.

Ben Ali had ruled Tunisia with an iron grip for 23 years and the country is considered one of the worst police states in the region. But his government's ability to keep Islamists at bay and protect France's interests earned him Paris' trust.

 -- Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

Photos: Demonstrators protesting in the streets of Tunisia. Credit: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images. Lower image: Protesters are seen near a burning truck in Douz, Tunisia, on Wednesday, Jan. 12. Credit: Associated Press. Video: Security forces are purportedly seen vandalizing shops in Tunisia. Credit: YouTube

 

 

 

Comments

[Joe]

Marie, you don't know what you're talking about!
France was a major supplier of armaments to Saddam ever since he came in to power!
"Iraq's 11,000-page report to the UN Security Council lists 150 foreign companies, including some from America, Britain, Germany and France, that supported Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction programme, a German newspaper said yesterday."
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/302024.html

"Saddam Arms Dealer Looks Awfully Familiar"
http://www.observer.com/node/46508

[Marie Claude]

Ben Ali: Michèle Alliot-Marie justifie la position du gouvernement français (interview à paraitre dans le JDD de demain) http://t.co/aGFo4WJ

Tunis livrée au chaos des milices http://t.co/2gXvG3y

Tunisie: Le photographe français mort http://t.co/aLe18yj

Retour des Français bloqués à Tunis dimanche: http://t.co/G9lLGFC

yeah, that is colonialism, LMAO

[Marie Claude]

Ayham Dahi

surprise surprise, kiki supports the tyrans ? your best friends !

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/01/u-s-copter-sales-cant-save-wiki-ousted-tunisian-dictator/

[Marie Claude]

Pardon my French, French government provided armaments and chemical weapons to Saddam

joe joe you're well brainwashed

uh no, we didn't, but you invented the scenario:

http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp11092005.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp11012005.html

[Marie Claude]

the lefties biased the discourse as usual

France wanted to help to organise mobs strikes without that the could get slaughtered

[tim gallien]

Its hard to deal with the government, when it is government itself that is the problem.
those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable. its not about terrorists, politics, race, religion, this is about tyranny.
All governments eventually collapse under the weight of their own tyranny. Unfortunately, it is us the people who get crushed underneath.

google
Rachel Corrie
Neda Soltan

[kecke]

It is easy to condemn France's attitude towards the social movements in Tunisia. But perhaps we will know in two or three years whether this approach was justified or not. The laicist dictatorship of Ben Ali was brutal but not as harmful for the people as the political system in Iran. If the Taliban regime in Afghanistan was a threat for the United States, so far away from Washington, a fundamentalist rule in Tuinisia would certainly be a catastrophe for France and Europe, directly in the neighborship of this continent.
Hundred of thousands of Tunisians are living in France. And such transformation would likely be effect Algeria and Marocco. The West did certainly not react in a correct way, but the historical events in Iran show how a revolution against the reactionary monarchy of the Chah changed into an even more terrific rule of religious leaders. Not the peoples are accountable for these effects. But revolutions may mark the beginnings of processes which are not be controlled by distressed masses. We should judge France's attitude under these aspects. French bashing is not a solution at all.

[Joe]

Pardon my French, French government provided armaments and chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein, provided nuclear weapon to Israel, murdered countless of civilians in Algeria and ..., more importantly US Green Peace activist among others have been murdered by France and yet they're wishfully thinking that we are take them seriously when they do speak about human rights, Tunisia is a case and point!

[Ayham Dahi]

France's support for repressive measures against the Tunisian people should surprise no one. France, the U.S, and the west in general have been supporting dictators around the world for decades especially in the Arab World.
One has to look for countries labeled by the west as moderate Arab states like Egypt and Saudia Arabia to realize the hypocrisy. There is nothing moderate about the dictators who are ruling these countries. They earn the label moderate with their obedience and support of the west economical and political interest.