Once a beacon of hope, Tunisia's civil society struggles to survive

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS (Reuters) -In May 2024, Tunisian activistic Cherifa Riahi was arrested conscionable 2 months aft giving birth, accused of harbouring amerciable migrants. Over a twelvemonth later, she is inactive successful situation without charge.

Rights groups spot Riahi's lawsuit arsenic a awesome of accelerating repression of civilian nine nether President Kais Saied, who dissolved parliament successful 2021 and began ruling by decree.

The crackdown marks a important turnaround for Tunisia, wherever civilian nine groups flourished successful the aftermath of the 2011 uprising that unseated President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, inspired different Arab Spring uprisings, and helped signifier a antiauthoritarian transition.

As caput of a exile enactment group, Riahi had been helping sub-Saharan asylum seekers and different migrants find lodging and entree medicine and food. Her household says she did thing wrong.

The forced separation from her girl and young lad has been traumatic.

"The miss doesn't recognise her parent astatine all," Riahi's parent Farida, who is present caring for her grandchild, told Reuters astatine their household location successful La Marsa adjacent the capital, Tunis.

"They took her portion she was breastfeeding. We didn't adjacent person clip to recognize what was happening."

Since Saied's powerfulness grab, astatine slightest a twelve civilian nine figures similar Riahi person been detained connected allegations activists denounce arsenic fabricated, according to rights groups and lawyers. At slightest 10 civilian nine groups person had their assets frozen and offices raided, they say.

The Tunisian General Labour Union, which won the 2015 Nobel bid prize with different civilian nine groups and could erstwhile bring tens of thousands onto the streets, has been sapped by the arrests of inferior officials connected corruption charges.

The Tunisian government's media bureau did not respond to calls and written questions seeking remark astir Riahi's lawsuit and those of different activists and civilian nine groups.

Saied, 67, has accused civilian nine groups of "serving overseas agendas" and undermining nationalist unity.

He has said helium volition not beryllium a dictator and that state and ideology volition beryllium preserved, but that helium volition not let chaos oregon interference done overseas backing oregon organisations that correspond a "tool of treason."

Activists pass that immoderate of Tunisia's past surviving antiauthoritarian gains are astatine hazard arsenic the judiciary, media and parliament person each travel nether tighter enforcement power and astir absorption enactment leaders are successful prison.

"The onslaught connected civilian nine organisations is not an isolated incident," said Romdhane Ben Amor of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, an autarkic advocacy group.

"It comes wrong the discourse of the authorities' program to adjacent civic abstraction and to extremity the antiauthoritarian openness achieved by Tunisians aft January 14, 2011."

'SEEN AS ENEMIES'

In Tunis, the offices of I Watch, an anti-corruption watchdog founded aft the 2011 revolution, utilized to bustle with dozens of employees, volunteers and journalists.

These days, lone 3 employees enactment on-site. Dozens enactment remotely, immoderate fearing raids oregon arrests.

Wajdi Belloumi, I Watch's president, said its slope transfers person been hindered and authoritative investigations into the radical are piling up. Hotels person stopped renting spaces for the group's events, citing vague instructions from authorities, Belloumi said.

Last year, the electoral committee refused for the archetypal clip to let I Watch to show elections owed to suspicions of overseas funding.

"We're seen arsenic enemies now," Belloumi told Reuters. "Many volunteers are afraid. Whistle-blowers person gone quiet. The unit is everyplace — legal, financial, adjacent personal."

Ben Amor said helium had received anonymous threats and started looking implicit his enarthrosis successful nationalist spaces.

"People commencement saying, 'This antheral indispensable beryllium gotten escaped of'," helium said, referring to comments sent successful backstage messages, oregon "'your lad studies astatine that school, your girl studies astatine that schoolhouse ... I saw you connected that street'".

Foreign governments that erstwhile championed Tunisia's antiauthoritarian modulation present prioritise curbing migration and short-term stability, rights groups say.

Ben Amor said helium believed helium had been targeted peculiarly aft speaking retired against Saied's caller anti-migrant rhetoric.

In 2023, the aforesaid twelvemonth Tunisia signed a pact with the European Union aimed astatine stemming migration crossed the Mediterranean, Saied said amerciable immigration was portion of a "conspiracy" to change Tunisia's demographics.

Since then, authorities person dismantled tents and carried retired forced deportations -- the run amid which Riahi was detained.

Though the abstraction for civilian nine groups is shrinking by the day, Belloumi said helium remains committed.

"We chose this way -- transparency, justice, accountability," helium said. "And we're not walking away."

(Reporting by Tarek Amara, Editing by Alexandre Dziadosz and Aidan Lewis)