Statement about Kamour’s situation
On the night between Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 June 2020, the national security forces moved in the field and intervened to break up the Kamour sit-in organized weeks ago by a number of young protesters demanding the full implementation of the agreement concluded three years ago, in the month of June 2017, with the state and guaranteed by the General Union Tunisian labor. In this intervention, the security forces used force, especially tear gas.
A clarification announcement issued by the Ministry of the Interior on Sunday evening, June 21, 2020, was followed by numerous statements made by the governor of Tataouine and the official spokesperson of the Ministry with the audio-visual media, that this intervention came to stop a person participating in the sit-in issued against him three inspection pamphlets and also to open the roads that the sitters closed in order to avoid disrupting the interests of citizens and to ensure the proper functioning of the wheels of the national economy in the state of Tataouine. The confrontations continued throughout Sunday, June 21, 2020 and were renewed on the morning of Monday, June 22, 2020. According to some media sources dozens of protesters, between seventy and eighty, were wounded of varying severity and fifteen young protesters were arrested.
The undersigning civil society organizations relate to the universal human rights values enshrined in the January 27, 2014 constitution, especially the right of every person to respect his/her dignity and physical freedom (Chapter 23), the right of every citizen and citizen to work (Chapter 40), freedom of assembly and peaceful protest ( Chapter 37), which adheres to the Tunisian state as a historical gain for the Tunisian people and is stuck with its role in protecting these rights and defending them. The civil society organizations expresses its solidarity with youth protest movements with a revolutionary or reformist orientation calling for changing social and economic conditions in accordance with the values of modernity and the principles of democracy and human rights in all its civil and political dimensions economic, social, cultural and environmental, and in accordance with the principle of equality between women and men and non-discrimination on any basis,
The undersigning civil society organizations:
Express their surprise at the sudden escalation by the government and its resort to the security solution to break the Kamour II sit-in, and that a round of negotiations was supposed to take place this week, under the auspices of the Tunisian General Labor Union;
consider this escalation a repression of the sit-in, which can only be explained by political considerations aimed at “improving the conditions of negotiation” by shifting its topic from the implementation of the Kamour Agreement to the release of detainees;
consider that these political methods are not appropriate for a modern country.
-Condemn the employment and use of the national security forces to serve these narrow political purposes, and engaging them in violent clashes with protesters and leaving them alone to confront them in a way that makes relations between the two parties in a state of permanent tension;
-Condemn the resort of the security forces, whether by instructions from the field commanders or by the individual actions of the agents, to the excessive and disproportionate force required by the security situation.
The civil society organizations signing this statement, despite the fact that they understand the anger experienced by young protesters as a result of the deteriorating living and social situation in their ranks and in the region as a whole, they underline their absolute rejection of some of the slogans echoed by a number of them, on Sunday June 21, and the call to rebellion against and depart from the Tunisian state, and consider that these voices, even if they are isolated and muted, must be vigilant about their gravity, since the organizations that firmly believe that there is no revolution except within the framework of the state, inside it, outside it, or against it,
Finally, the associations and organizations that are affiliated with the Tunisian state represented in its government affirm the necessity of activating the agreements concluded with the former protesters in order to improve the economic and social situation in the governorate of Tataouine, as well as the initiation of the implementation of the promises of development and employment made by previous governments.
The signatory organisations:
- Beity organisation
- Tunisian Association for Defending Individual Liberties
- Afak Organisation Tunisian worker
- The Association for Activating the Right to Difference
- The Committee for the Respect of Liberties and Human Rights in Tunisia
- Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights
- The Association of Citizenship, development, cultures, and immigration on both sides (CDCMIR)
- The Association of Arts and Cultures in both sides
- Creation and Creativity Association for Development and Employment
- Bawsala Association
- Initiators existing for justice
- Association for Sustainable Development and International Cooperation, Zarzis
- My Art Against my Will Association
- Nomad 08 Association
- Mirset Association
- Tunisian Female Voters League
- Association of Development and Strategic Studies in Medenine
- Shams Association
- Tunisian Association for Cultural Movement
- Tawheeda Ben Shikh’s Group for Medical Support Center
- Tunisian Association for Positive Prevention
- Tunisian Female Voices
- Tunisian Coalition to abolish death penalty
- Tunisian Female Association for Research on Development (AFTURD)
- Yakadha Association for Democracy and Civic State
- Ibsar Association for Culture and Entertainment of People with Visual Impairment
- Development and Democracy Forum
- Tahaddi Association
- The Tunisian Association for the Defense of University Values
- Hassen Saadaoui Association for Democracy and Equality
- Tunisian Association for Studies on Gender
- History and Memory Association for Freedom
- Union of Tunisians to work for citizenship
- Tunisian federation for citizenship between the two banks
- Democratic Transition and Human Rights Support Center (DAAM)
