EU and USA to Aid Tunisia in Upcoming Elections

The European Union and the United States began preparations to dispatch observer missions to monitor the progress of possibly the most important election in the history of Tunisia.

The countdown for the election of the Constituent Assembly on October 23rd has already begun. Preparations are in full swing, but not only in Tunisia. Countries friendly with Tunisia, including the European Union and the United States, are anxious to see the Tunisians achieve this challenge. They are busy establishing observer missions to monitor and aid the progress of this election .

The European Union aims to recruit observers who have participated in at least three similar assignments and have oral and written fluency in French and if possible, Arabic. Other skills required relate to the computer, organization and management, and being in good physical health.
Following the decision of the High Representative/Vice-President of the Commission to deploy an EU mission to observe the election in Tunisia, the European Commission launched the process for selecting members of the core team to cover 10 positions .
The Americans will be present too. Besides the International Republican Institute (IRI), the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the National Democratic Institute will bring to Tunisia expertise on the aspects of the electoral process.
The Carter Center, headed by former United States President Jimmy Carter is preparing to initially deploy 14 election experts to meet the different actors of the electoral process to “evaluate the election administration, voter registration, election campaign , the voting, and the tabulation of result”. They will later be joined, as the election draws near, by a group of 40 short-term election observers.

Source: www.webmanagercenter.com/www.businessnews.com.tn

Sit-in at Monastir Airport Blocks Rail Traffic

Tunisia has seen numerous sit-ins and strikes since January 14th, though few can match the longevity of the sit-in at the Monastir airport that has been ongoing since February.
The various actors are still far from finding a consensus to this protest movement. It has perturbed the functioning of the airport but allowed traffic to continue, as the agents alternate work and protest.
Another organized sit-in took place on Tuesday, September 6th, expanding to a nearby train station and blocking the rail traffic between Sousse and Monastir the entire day.
Like other Tunisian airports, Habib Bourguiba Airport in Monastir registered a decline in traffic due to the transfer of most of its flights to the airport of Enfidha , and this loss of business is the protester’s chief complaint.
According to the general-secretary of the labor union of the civil aviation and the airports, this sit-in is the only answer to the other parties involved – the Turkish company TAV and the authorities – for not respecting their promises  and their commitments concerning the return of activity of the airport. He also specified that the strikers still demand that the airport remains under the supervision of the OACA ( the labor union)  instead of the TAV.

Will Ennahda Apologize for the Attacks of 1987?

On the night of August 2nd, 1987, four explosions took place, simultaneously, in four hotels of Sousse and Monastir. Thirteen people were injured, among them foreign tourists. Islamists were the presumed perpetrators, and the synchronization of the attacks showed their strong organization amidst social crisis.
We all know what happened next. Those attacks, the day before the celebration of the birthday of then-president Habib Bourguiba in his hometown Monastir, were taken as a personal challenge by the aging head of state. He called 90 members and Islamist leaders, among them Rached Ghannouchi, to judgment. Bourguiba, who was very angry, said that heads would roll, especially Ghannouchi’s .
The Ennahda party, then the Movement of the Islamic Tendency (MTI), has never claimed or admitted responsibility for these attacks. Commentators hostile to Bourguiba’s successor, President Ben Ali, often said that Ben Ali himself and his services engineered the attack, aiming to create an explosive situation in the country and make it easier for him to take power.
Recently, a close friend of Bourguiba who lived with him during this period, supported this thesis. In a book titled “Bourguiba as I Knew Him,” Amor Chadli wrote of ”the masquerade of the trial.”
“Let us remember  that the two persons condemned to death (Mahrez Boudegga and Boulbaba Dkhil) were not the ones who put the bombs in the hotels of Sousse and Monastir on August 2nd, 1987,” wrote Chadli. “The one who did, Fethi Maâtoug,  fled the country with the complicity of a policeman, and his accomplice, Abdelmajid El Mili, ran away too. “
Today, two new witnesses, Sahbi Amri and Ahmed Mannaï, say instead that it was Ennahdha who sponsored these attacks, and Ennahda activists carried out the bombings. Mr Amri, who claims he was “in the heart of the events” in a video broadcasted by Aljarida.com, asserts that he was in contact with  two leaders of the Islamist movement, Hamadi Jebali and Salah Karkar, to facilitate the departure  to Algeria of the main author of the attacks: Fathi Maâtoug. Amri offered his own car for the trip. The escape took place via the border regions situated between Kalaât Senan and Aïn Ouedey.
Mr Amri says that he redid the same route two days later, in his car, with two other fugitives, also involved  in the organization of the attacks in Sousse and Monastir, Mohamed Chemli and Abdelmajid El Mili. The operation was led by the request of the same financiers, Hamadi Jebali and Salah Karkar, and in the same conditions.
Ahmed Manaï was also close to Ennahdha. His 15-year-old son, Bilel, was arrested the day after the attacks and then condemned to two and a half years in prison, along with 37 other young people of Ouerdanine. Mr Manaï agrees categorically with Mr. Amri: Ennahdha  was responsible for the attacks. “The leaders of Ennahdha have to apologize today to the Tunisian people,” said Manaï in an interview with Monastir local radio.
In his interview, Manaï said that the date of August 2nd completely changed his life. That’s why he’s asking today, with many other Tunisians, for the leaders of Ennahdha to  have the political courage to admit their errors and apologize to their fellows.