Tunisian WSIS repression: An interview
The last phase of the World Summit on the Information Society has hardly started, but the choice of host country already looks more questionable than ever. Markus Beckedahl has an interview (.mp3 – I hope the .ogg version is coming up) on his blog where Rikke Frank Joergenson, the coordinator of the international civil society’s Human Rights Caucus, describes how Tunisian “security” forces physically attacked participants of a Civil Society meeting. The interview gives a good impression of what happened.
She talks of people being beaten by the police and a journalist nearly arrested, while the group tried several times to assemble at different locations. Remember, this are not the protests outside a G8 summit taking place behind closed doors (where similar repression frequently occurs). At the WSIS, Civil Society groups are registered participants in a meeting of the United Nations. Tunisian police are attacking the participants of an international diplomatic conference. Usually, these events are so overly civilised as to be rather boring. Physical aggression against anyone taking part in one is entirely unacceptable.