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| Africa North |
| Tunisia regulates associations suspected of terrorism |
| 2014-08-13 |
| [MAGHAREBIA] The office of Tunisia's premier reiterated on Friday (August 8th) its commitment to regulate associations by conducting audits and speeding up measures to create a suitable atmosphere for elections. Interim Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa on Thursday said that measures taken to stop the activities of some associations were based on security agencies' assessment and were in the framework of administrative and legal arrangements, noting that these associations could resort to court. Jomaa last week dismissed Slim Briki, the person in charge of the unit monitoring associations and political parties. "The unit didn't do its job in monitoring suspicious associations, but that duty was done by the Interior Ministry in association with the prime minister office," Mofdi Mseddi, the prime minister's information officer, told Magharebia. Briki told Mosaique FM back on February 18th that the current legal mechanisms were ineffective, especially in view of the presence of more than 16,000 associations, including 6,000 that were created after the revolution when a new law was issued to govern them. Following the successive terrorist operations in which a number of soldiers and coppers were killed, Jomaa's government decided to create a crisis cell and to close unauthorised mosques, and radio and TV stations that promote takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... st discourse. It also took steps to suspend the activities of associations suspected of terrorist financing. "In principle, the measure is good," Alaya Alani, an expert on Islamist groups, told Magharebia. "However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... the problem is that we lack a clear database showing the number of these associations in Tunisia. There is talk about hundreds of similar associations, but those that have been frozen are only those linked to Ansar al-Sharia ...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libyaand Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet... . The authorities wanted to send a message, to the effect that they're working to clear the political atmosphere before the election." "The new thing for Mehdi Jomaa's government is that it now takes urgent measures, implements them, and then follows with legal measures. Civil society and the media also have to continue to monitor these associations to pressure and expose them," Alani added. According to experts, the new law on creating associations, decree number 88, is highly flexible. "The problem is that decree number 88, which appeared after the revolution, gave extensive freedom in creating, financing, and running associations," said Anis Wahabi, an accounting expert who prepared a study on associations and their law in Tunisia. "Meanwhile, ...back at the comedy club, Boogie was cracking himself up, but nobody else seemed to be getting the non-stop jokes... the process of monitoring them is incomplete." He added that there was no monitoring of associations at the provincial level, saying, "The only monitor thereof is the monitoring unit at the prime minister's office in the capital. Therefore, the supervisory authority in provinces doesn't know what these associations are doing." "As to foreign financing, the new law only requires releasing a statement to the government and publishing it in a daily newspaper, without any follow-up, monitoring or identification of source," Wahabi told Magharebia. As to the freezing of some associations, Wahabi said: "The law says that violating associations must be warned, their activities suspended and then they're eventually dissolved. We don't know whether the government has followed this or not." Regarding solutions, Wahabi suggested creating a national observatory for monitoring associations, setting up a database on every association and monitoring it by law. "Meanwhile, ...back at the comedy club, Boogie was cracking himself up, but nobody else seemed to be getting the non-stop jokes... we have to respect law number 88 and speed up the examination of some of its chapters, including the chapter on foreign financing. The Central Bank of Tunisia has also to intervene in the monitoring process," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |