TUNISIA - appuntamento è per le 3:30 p.m. fissato ad Ariana has a sobborgo northeast Popolare di Tunisi dall'aspetto e leggermente decadent. La voce è di Leila worried riattacca bruscamente the phone just understand that I have arrived at your destination. I am descended from the taxi in front of her car, she makes a gesture with his hand and invites me to climb.
Leila is the younger sister of Samir Ben Alaya, a militant Annadha remained for twenty years hidden in an underground shelter in the region of El Kef. Despite the openings made by the Interim Government and all opposition Islamic party not recognized by the old regime, Laila is quiet and prefers to play it safe. "I am not part of the movement - immediately clarifies the woman in her forties - from my brother and his comrades who have made the prison and who have suffered repression, but I consider myself totally secular and far their ideology. " Laila idles for about twenty minutes before you post a side street. The path crosses the last buildings of the city and goes to die in an isolated clearing, hidden behind some trees that separate it from the vague gray Soviet-style apartment blocks. Samir is waiting. Sitting on a big stone, savors her cigarette slowly.
Interview with Samir Ben Alaya (Tunis, 28 January 2011)
Jacopo crabs: Samir first thing I would like a clarification. Why all these precautions? She is now a free man.
Samir Ben Alaya: So it seems, in fact, still struggle to believe e non riesco ad abbandonare le vecchie abitudini. Inoltre la legalizzazione del partito, anche se più volte annunciata, non è ancora arrivata. Io resto formalmente un ricercato.
J. G.: Da quanto tempo ha lasciato il suo rifugio?
S. B. A.: Sono uscito dal sotterraneo in cui ero nascosto il 22 gennaio scorso, dopo ventuno anni e due mesi di clandestinità. Ma la mia storia di perseguitato politico inizia un po’ prima…
J. G.: Allora cominciamo dall’inizio.
S. B. A.: Il primo contatto con la polizia politica del regime l’ho avuto nel 1984, l’anno in cui è scoppiata la “rivolta del pane” throughout the country. When I was arrested I was a member of the Islamic Tendency Movement (MTI), the father of Annadha, and participating in meetings of the El Kef. I was offered a yogurt with some girls who wore the veil and I stopped to talk a bit 'with them. The agents have questioned and then came to pick me up. Apparently they were already on my trail and looked for a pretext. They kept me in the police station for ten days, they beat me and then released because they had enough evidence to accuse me.
Since then everyone in town knew of my affiliation with the movement. Monitoring began, and stalking. In 1986 I was arrested for the second time, while I was in the company of a great leader of the movement that I had met secretly in the house of a friend. In prison I was tortured, then sentenced to six months in prison along with three other companions on charges of "membership of an illegal party." At the time I was a nurse in the hospital of the city. After the sentences were thrown out of work.
JG: You spoke of torture, can be more specific?
SBA: Torture is a common practice in our country, previously operated by, and then by Ben Ali Bourguiba. Was the norm for those who were transferred to a local police on suspicion of belonging to a political movement not recognized, the Islamist what's left. The political police took charge of the dirty work: the simulation of drowning, the passage of electric current on the body and in particular on his testicles, burns to the chest. Every time someone could not take it to resist, even though it was always a doctor to make sure that the prisoner remain alive.
JG: How many members at the time MTI had in his city?
SBA: At El Kef time there were about five hundred activists. To this we must add the sympathizers, those who have not participated in the meetings and not directly engaging in illegal propaganda, to share our ideas and gave us logistical support. In all, two or three thousand people, many for a small town like El Kef.
JG: What did you do after getting out of prison?
SBA: I was out of work, so I supported the network of our movement and I left El Kef to reach the capital. It was the beginning of 1987, just months before the dismissal of Bourguiba. The former President had declared open war all'MTI. He felt weak and threatened. At that time there were frequent clashes between militants and our police, all over the country. I ran away from my home town along with other comrades to escape the clutches of the increasingly oppressive regime. But it was not enough, we were all arrested during Bushusha an event and transferred to a detention center has become known for torture and inhuman treatment reserved for political prisoners at that time it crowded with locals. Bushsusha still remains a symbol of dictatorship, violence and atrocities committed against opponents, both Ben Ali Bourguiba and below.
JG: It 's been tortured again?
SBA: Luckily for me one of the policemen guarding the detention center there was a kefois . Proved supportive and wanted to help. "I, like you, I'm from El Kef - I said - I will try to give you a hand." I was spared the torture and I was out a month after signing a statement of innocence. I am still impressed by his gesture. I can only remember him with affection, despite being implicated in torture to which they were subjected every day hundreds of my companions.
JG: The relationship between MTI and the conditions have changed with the removal of Bourguiba?
SBA: Immediately after the coup of Ben Ali was an atmosphere of relaxation, openness towards all opposition, Islamic and left. I took the opportunity to return to El Kef. Our leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, was even invited to a private meeting with the new president. Was proclaimed an amnesty, accompanied by many belle promesse. In realtà ci aspettavano anni ancor più terribili. In un primo tempo il regime accettò di legalizzare il nostro movimento, ma per poter essere riconosciuti come partito politico dovevamo rinunciare all’appellativo “tendenza islamica” (la legge tunisina vieta la formazione di partiti a carattere religioso, ndr). Così nel 1988 l’MTI si è trasformato in Annadha, che in arabo significa “la rinascita”. Annadha ha partecipato alle elezioni legislative del 1989, con propri candidati ufficiali e con l’appoggio di candidati indipendenti, ma il regime, quando si accorse che avremmo vinto, ha invalidato le elezioni. Ben Ali, vista la nostra forza, ha avuto paura. Da quel momento è a new phase of repression against us, a real fighter Islam seconded by most of the left opposition, which then led to the conviction and the dissolution of the official party in 1991.
JG: E 'at this time that he decided to go into hiding?
SBA: Mine was an obvious choice. On 22 December 1989 the authorities issued a new arrest warrant against me for distributing propaganda leaflets. We did it secretly, at night, leaving them under the doors. We tried to explain to people our point of view, our thoughts, as there was prevented from doing so publicly. From then went into hiding, I lose my tracks. If I did otherwise I would still be in prison. In total, the sum of the different processes in which I was involved between 1989 and early nineties, I have accumulated a sentence of more than twenty years in prison.
JG: What is today's choice?
SBA: The choice of secrecy has allowed me to avoid prison, torture, but at the same time robbed me of dignity. As I said, I was hidden for twenty years and two months. Although many things have changed now I still have fear, I feel the pressure on me and I can not walk down the street. For twenty years I have stopped essere un uomo. Non avevo più amici, nessuna vita sociale, nessun sentimento da esprimere se non l’angoscia che tuttora mi assale quando ripenso a quei momenti. A volte riuscivo ad incontrare mia madre, per pochi minuti. Ci guardavamo senza parlare, ma almeno mi vedeva e sapeva che ero ancora vivo. Avevo paura di scoprirmi troppo, mi sentivo braccato.
J. G.: Durante questo lungo periodo ha ricevuto l’appoggio del suo partito?
S. B. A.: Il partito non esisteva più. I suoi membri o erano fuggiti in esilio o si trovavano in carcere. Chi era stato risparmiato dalle condanne si guardava bene dal continuare la benché minima attività. Io ho potuto contare sull’aiuto di alcune persone I knew, among them some who sympathized with the movement. At first, let's say the first seven or eight years of secrecy, often changing their hiding place. I stayed locked up in a house a month, two at most, and then at night I moved somewhere else. The police continued to look for. Sometimes I managed to escape only minutes before their arrival. So I decided to hole up in a basement without windows or doors, except for a hole dug under the house of a friend (he had started work to transform the basement into a pantry). E 'was himself to show me and bring me food and water for over ten years. Mice and snakes that sometimes entered the shelter were the only ones who remember there was still a life around me.
JG: What do you think you do now?
SBA: I present to justice, calling for the annulment of the conviction review process. I do not think to resume political activity, at least for now. Quiet stand around with my family, I have lost more than twenty years of my life. When I chose the underground I was only twenty-seven, now I'm almost fifty. I can not recall the time that it was stolen, but before you go back to being a militant Ennadha want to go back to being a man.
JG: In the few days in the capital has had the opportunity to meet old friends?
SBA: I've met some people, those with whom I was in a closer relationship.
JG: What will be the attitude of Annadha in the coming months? Participate in elections?
SBA: Rachid Ghannouchi said openly that do not turn up to presidential elections. Prefer to first rebuild the foundation of the party. I can not say how many members Annadha counted before the dissolution, nor how many activists are now ready to come forward. In any case, the country is not ready either for an Islamic government nor a Muslim president. The population of Tunisia, after driving out the tyrant, does not want certainly a radical change, and for us is not the time to think about sharia, but only to the freedom that we have been offered.
Ours is a moderate movement, attached to the values \u200b\u200bof Islam that respects democracy and freedom. In time, perhaps, will be the same Tunisian people to reward our ideas. As happened in Turkey Erdogan's AKP. What is a turkish Annadha model has now been adopted as the reference, both ideological and across context. Ataturk had built a secular country like Tunisia of Bourguiba, but this has not prevented a moderate Islamic party, after suffering and efforts, access to power with a large support of the population.
0 comments:
Post a Comment