Brussels, 14/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - A delegation from the European Parliament (EP) human rights sub-committee, probably accompanied by members of the EP Maghreb delegation, will travel to Tunis on 26-28 January.
Before that, however, on Wednesday 12 January, Joint-Leader of the Greens-EFA Group, Daniel Cohn-Bendit called for a debate on the situation in Tunisia at the plenary session of 17-20 January, and demanded that both Catherine Ashton and Commission Štefan Füle be in attendance. In a press release, he said that he deeply regretted that the EU was “not up to the task of dealing with the violence of the Tunisian reaction and was once again showing its inability to develop a genuine, coherent and effective foreign policy towards its partners”. He called on the “Socialists and all those who supported President Ben Ali in his fight against fundamentalism to take their heads out of the clouds and grant themselves a few moments of lucidity to consider that this Ben Ali is none other than the main fomenter of fundamentalism”. In view of the extensive serious violations of rights and fundamental freedoms by the law enforcement agencies in Tunisia, he called for an independent international commission of enquiry to be opened, immediate suspension of the EU-Tunisia “enhanced status” talks and an emergency meeting of the EU-Tunisia Association Council.
On Tuesday, the Socialist Group in the EP “strongly condemned the firing of live rounds at demonstrators in Tunisia and urged the country's president, Ben Ali, to order the police and the army there to uphold the fundamental freedoms of all citizens and stop shooting at civilians”. The group went on in a press release: “Confronting demonstrators with live rounds … is a disproportionate and incomprehensible reaction which breaches international law and violates human rights, indicated the chairman of the S&D Group, Martin Schulz”. For Schulz, “the only way to handle the explosive situation is by political means”.
Abdessalem Hetira, Tunisian Ambassador to Belgium, when asked by Belgian radio channel RTBF, said he did not think the Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali regime was faltering. The radio channel reports that he said “the explosive situation in his country was the result of a campaign of condemnation of Tunisia being waged in Europe. Things are settling down,” he said. According to RTBF, he argues that “the economic crisis had something to do with this”. “Our country's economy is firmly linked to Europe's, so we have had this problem but it is only temporary”. He said on air: “Suicides happen every day. Sacrificing oneself is spectacular and is a real pity”. (http://www.rtbf.be/info/monde/tunisie/lambassadeur-de-tunisie-justifie-la-repression-294413 ) (F.B./transl.rt)