Egypt’s loss could be Tunisia’s gain as tourists begin to flock back. Credit: Louise Sherwood/IPS.

By Louise Sherwood
TUNIS, Sep 11 2013 (IPS)

The Tunisian revolution, which ousted the dictator Ben Ali in early 2011, gave greater liberty to Tunisians but it also scared off many tourists. However, despite the current political crisis visitors have steadily returned, and the Tunisian authorities and tourism industry are determined to protect a sector which plays a vital role in the Tunisian economy.

Tunisian minister of tourism Jamel Gamra is positive about the industry’s outlook. “Tourism is very important for the Tunisian economy,” he told IPS. “About 400,000 people are directly employed in the industry and up to 20 percent of the population [almost two million people] are living, either directly or indirectly, from tourism.

“The sector has big potential and we aim to reach 10 million tourists by 2016, a growth of one million tourists per year. Tunisia also has more freedom and democracy now, which is very important for economic growth and prosperity and has a positive effect on the tourism industry.”"We haven't seen any change. We would be put off going to Egypt though." -- Clare and Andy Kellaway

Thomson, one of the leading United Kingdom tour operators which also runs First Choice, are similarly optimistic. “We increased capacity within the resort for summer 2013,” a spokesperson told IPS. “We added the exclusive, new Thomson Couples Sousse hotel, as well as adding the El Ksar Resort and Thalasso Sousse hotel to our programme.”

Hichem Borgi, commercial manager at the El Ksar resort and Thalasso Sousse, a four star hotel, is also confident about the return of the tourists but has concerns about political stability.

“This year our visitor numbers will probably reach pre-revolution levels again. However the situation is fragile and when incidents happen, like the attack on the U.S. embassy last year and the political assassinations this year, it interrupts the rhythm of the reservations and bookings.”

Atef Bouhlel used to operate spa treatment centres in two hotels in Sousse but left the tourism sector in 2012 and is now an associate in a commercial plastering business. “When the revolution happened hotel occupancy dropped dramatically, from 900 to 300 or 400 guests in one hotel, the number of clients went down and I could no longer afford the rent,” he said.

He still sees tourism as vital to the Tunisian economy. “Libya earns a lot of money from oil but we don’t have that. Our economy is dependent on tourism. Even those working in agriculture are supplying fruit and vegetables to the hotels. Buses and taxis drive the tourists around and transport them to and from the airport. Students spend their summers working as waiters. Tourism helps in many sectors.”

Recent figures released by the Tunisian National Tourism Office confirm that tourism is showing steady signs of recovery. In 2010 the industry was bringing in 3.5 billion dinars (2.1 billion dollars) but in 2011, the year of the revolution, visitor numbers dropped by 30 percent on the previous year, from nearly seven million tourists to less than five million.

The figures show that by mid-August this year close to four million tourists had visited, generating almost 1.9 billion dinars (1.1 billion dollars).

An increased police presence is being maintained in resorts this season. Tunisia has only to look to Egypt to see what could happen to tourism revenue if the political situation turns violent.

“Tour operators have cancelled flights to Egypt until October. Tourists who booked to go there are being offered a refund or an alternative holiday in another destination such as Tunisia,” said Snene Mohamed Anas with Tunisie Voyages, a travel agency which provides excursions for the international tour operator Tui.

Keeping tourists safe is priority for his company. “We are in touch with the authorities and if there are protests we warn people immediately,” he told IPS. “Also on our Sahara excursions we send a car ahead of the bus to make sure there are no problems on the road.”

These strategies do seem to be working to allay the fears of tourists. Clare and Andy Kellaway, from England, were visiting Sousse with their son, Cameron. “We haven’t heard about any political problems. We came here in 2005, 2008 and now. We haven’t seen any change. We would be put off going to Egypt though.”

Moves are being made to encourage tourists to step outside hotels. “The authorities in charge of the tourist sector are not doing enough,” said Ghazi Ben Rejeb, a waiter in one of the cafes in the popular resort Port Al Khantaoui. “We need to improve the excursions and activities available.”

Such demands have not gone unheard. “First we must restructure the sector in terms of developing not only hotels but culture, handicrafts, and jobs,” said Gamra. “Secondly we are currently seen mainly as a beach destination but we want to diversify developing culture, archaeological sites, and sport.

“Thirdly we want to become more web-oriented and make better use of new technology. Currently we are heavily dependent on tour operators but we want to start selling our product directly to customers online. We also want to attract more tourists from the Asian, African and Gulf markets.”

Tunisia may still be trying to overcome the hurdles of its political transition but the tourism industry, one of its economic mainstays, looks set for a sunny future.

The military on standby in central Tunis. Credit: Louise Sherwood/IPS.

By Louise Sherwood
TUNIS, Aug 13 2013 (IPS)

Tunisia was plunged into political strife when opposition leader Mohamed Brahmi was assassinated late last month, triggering widespread pro- and anti-government demonstrations across the country. In the days since his death the North African nation has faced a further series of terrorist attacks that have threatened to destabilise a country seen as a model for post-revolution democracy in the region.

Four days after Brahmi was shot dead outside his home in Tunis on Jul. 25, eight Tunisian soldiers were brutally killed in Islamist militant attacks against the army. Since then, more soldiers have died in clashes, bombs have been detonated in and around the capital Tunis, and terror suspects have been killed and arrested in police raids.

Police claim to have foiled another assassination attempt against a political figure in the city of Sousse. The target was not named."Since the revolution two important clients, an American investment fund and a tour operator that owned two hotels, have pulled out of Tunisia."

Sheikh Abdelfatteh Mourou, vice-president of the government’s dominant ruling party Ennahda Movement, told IPS: “We have no history of terrorism in Tunisia. We’re not ready for such attacks. We must strike the terrorists.

“Terrorism has no nationality. Terrorists don’t see people as victims of a particular country, they see them only as enemies. They search for the weakest link in the chain, a country that just came out of a revolution, that lacks stability, where the government isn’t strong enough. That’s us now.”

Felix Tusa from the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, a non-profit organisation that works with the Tunisian government on security sector reform, told IPS: “The politicians controlling the ministry of the interior have changed, but there have been very few changes in the security apparatus itself.

“The biggest challenges are a lack of funding for salaries and equipment and how to develop an intelligence service that is effective, whilst also being transparent and respecting human rights. One of the main criticisms of the democratic transition process has been a lack of security sector reform.”

The surprise resignation of army chief Gen. Rachid Ammar in June was attributed in part to the problems within the ministry of the interior. In the announcement of his departure on national television, Ammar stated that the lack of a functioning intelligence service was preventing effective military operations.

Minister of the interior Lotfi Ben Jeddou renewed his commitment last week to tackle terrorism along the Algerian border. “Military and security operations will continue until all terrorists holed up in the mountain are extirpated,” he said in a statement.

The ministry has come under fire for investigations into the murder of Chokri Belaid, another opposition politician who was shot six months ago, with the same gun as Brahmi, as he left his house. The ministry was criticised for taking too long to identify suspects, and when it did, for failing to arrest them. “We will soon compensate for this failure by a massive mobilisation of agents to capture these terrorists,” the minister said.

Marking six months since Belaid’s assassination, tens of thousands of Tunisians turned out Tuesday last week to call for the government to step down. The march was on the same day the National Constituent Assembly, which is writing the new Constitution, suspended its work until dialogue takes place between the government and opposition.

A large pro-government rally had been held a few days earlier, but this was the biggest anti-government demonstration since Brahmi’s murder. The now familiar cries of “dégage!” (get out!) were stronger than ever.

Ines Karaoui came to the protest with her husband and two young children from Sfax, which is a three-hour drive from Tunis. “It’s a national duty to come. I won’t sleep tonight but people have lost relatives and children have lost their fathers. It’s nothing to sacrifice a few hours of sleep compared to the sacrifice of soldiers who had their throats cut.

“Tunisia is bleeding, we have cried tears of blood for our Tunisia. We love our country and we want a future for our children. We don’t want to be like Afghanistan or Syria…The government wants people to feel that the terrorist threat is very close to Tunisia but they are the ones behind this. We are anti-extremism. We want to take back our Tunisia.”

Commenting on the accusations against the government, Mourou told IPS: “That’s not true. They [the opposition] know that Al-Qaeda, Ansar al-Sharia and the Salafists are not Ennahda…we are all Muslims but we do not follow the same programme.”

Others in Tunisia question whether even these groups are to blame. Sheikh Mohamed, an Islamist and professor of theology who spent seven years as a political prisoner under dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s regime, told IPS: “Salafists have been blamed for the terrorist attacks but it is not certain. Perhaps members of the old regime or foreigners are responsible.

“Many Salafists are peaceful but some are violent and infiltrate mosques and there are also Salafist jihadists. I support Shari’ah law and want Islam to be prominent in the new constitution but I also want democracy and refuse all violence.”

As each day brings new stories of attacks at the borders, bomb threats and assassination plots, Tunisia’s economy is also taking a hit. Both tourists and investors are being frightened away, and with them the economic lifeblood of a successful democratic transition.

Mehdi Zaoui, an international business lawyer, told IPS: “Since the revolution two important clients, an American investment fund and a tour operator that owned two hotels, have pulled out of Tunisia. I also have three or four clients who were thinking about investing in the country in the industry and IT sectors who are reconsidering.

“I had a meeting with an Italian client working in the chemicals industry asking me about the situation here. They have already spent a lot of money in the country but they are scared about their investment.”

The government is stepping up efforts to combat terrorism. The perceived insecurity and instability may yet pose the greatest threat to Tunisia.

Mourners gather at the funeral of opposition leader Mohamed Brahmi in Tunis. Credit: Louise Sherwood/IPS.

By Louise Sherwood
TUNIS, Jul 31 2013 (IPS)

As political divisions threaten to destabilise the national transition process in Tunisia, Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh has set deadlines for finalising the new constitution and holding elections. Not everyone is convinced these will be met.

In a televised speech Monday appealing for a calm resolution of the political crisis, Laaryedh stated: “Dissolution of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) and the government will not help the situation…There are opportunists who are trying to take advantage of this situation. Dialogue shouldn’t be in the streets or through violence but at the table discussing strategies and plans.”

His speech was a show of strength following a wave of protests that have hit the country since the assassination of opposition leader Mohamed Brahmi on Thursday last week, the second such assassination in five months. Early shocked reactions led to protests against the government, with many chanting ‘dégage!’ (get out!), a slogan that was used during the revolution.It was expected that the constitution would be finalised within a year followed by elections but almost two years on it is still not finished.

The opposition is already unhappy with the government’s progress with the transitional process. It was expected that the constitution would be finalised within a year followed by elections but almost two years on it is still not finished. The government insists it is taking time to get it right, but critics argue it is clinging to power.

Laarayedh now says the constitution will be finalised by the end of August and that election laws will be written by Oct. 23, the date the government came to power in 2011. He announced that elections will be held on Dec. 17, the anniversary of the day three years ago when street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight, igniting the revolution in Tunisia and triggering the Arab Spring.

However Amine Ghali, programme director at the Kawakibi Democracy Centre, an international civil society organisation based in Tunis, told IPS: “There is no possibility of meeting these deadlines. For the election laws and elections we need six to eight months. Perhaps the constitution could be finished by the end of August but only if there is a genuine discussion to improve the current draft, taking into account the many shortfalls it contains.”

Anti-government protestors are also angry that not enough is being done to stop extremist Islamic groups or to secure national borders. The country was plunged into mourning once more Monday when nine Tunisian soldiers were killed and their bodies mutilated in a terrorist attack close to the Algerian border.

Following Brahmi’s funeral on Saturday both pro- and anti- government protestors demonstrated in the square in front of the NCA in Tunis. This led to clashes, and police fired tear gas into the crowds. Protests have been taking place across the country.

Reem Selmi came with her husband and 12-year-old daughter to support the government in an earlier protest on Sunday. “People want the government to solve all the problems straightaway but it’s not possible just like that,” she said. She believes the government, which is dominated by the moderate Islamic party Ennahda, is on the right path.

“This government lets everybody live the life that they want. Under [former dictator] Ben Ali we were not free to practise our religion but now we can. We are Muslims and we love Islam. Islam does not mean terrorism.”

Yet there is a danger that political divisions are being strengthened down religious lines.

“I used to want Ben Ali out because he wouldn’t allow Muslims to grow long beards or women to wear the niqab, but now I think I know why he did this,” Maher Gatri on the anti-government side of the square told IPS.

“Today you can look at a person and just by his clothes or appearance you can tell which party they support. We are all Tunisians and Muslims but now we are separating into two sides. This is very sad. When I am near the government supporters I feel afraid. I am a Muslim but now I am in fear of my own religion.”

The government is also facing a crisis amongst members of the NCA charged with writing the constitution. Several have withdrawn from their positions over the last few days.

“Fifty-nine [out of 217] members have withdrawn but we want them to come back,” Osama al Saghir, NCA member from the Ennahda party tells IPS. “If we find a solution we will complete the constitution on time. If they choose not to come back they will have to resign and be replaced.”

There are claims that the government itself, a coalition of three parties, the Congress for the Republic (CPR), Ettakatol, and the dominant party Ennahda, may be fragmenting.

Bannour Mohamed, spokesperson for Ettakatol, reportedly told local radio station Jawhara FM, “If Ennahda and the CPR refuse the dissolution of the government, Ettakatol will withdraw from the troika.”

Al Saghir says this is not the case. “We continue to work together with Mustapha Ben Jaafar, Ettakatol’s secretary general and president of the NCA.”

Television images of the violence in Egypt serve as a stark warning to Tunisians of where the path a violent overthrow may lead.

In a paper entitled ‘Tunisia unlikely to go Egypt’s way’ Francis Ghilès, senior research fellow at the Barcelona Centre for Foreign Affairs (CIDOB) sets out three key differences between the Egyptian and Tunisian crises which offer hope for Tunisia: Tunisia’s army does not have a strong political role, its economic and unemployment problems are not as bad, and it has a strong and vocal civil society, he argues. Many Tunisians hope he is right.

Mozambique’s Magermans, or “people from Germany” have been waiting 22 years for salaries they earned in Germany that the southern African nation was meant to pay them. Credit: Louise Sherwood/IPS

By Louise Sherwood
MAPUTO, Jul 11 2012 (IPS)

Every Wednesday at 11.00am José Alfredo Cossa unfurls his East German flag and leads a march of around 150 men and women down the main streets of Maputo, Mozambique’s capital. In a struggle for justice that has been going on for more than 20 years this group, known as the “Magermans”, represent the 16,000 to 20,000 Mozambicans who were sent to the former East Germany in the early 1980s to work and serve their country.

“We’ve been marching for 22 years to get the salary we earned in Germany. We keep coming because we are sure that one day they will pay,” explained Cossa. “In Europe we learnt about peaceful protest. Where else in Africa would you see a demonstration like this?” he asked. Magermans is a local name meaning those who came from Germany.

Passersby turn to stare as the procession passes. Blowing whistles, beating drums, singing and dancing the carnival atmosphere of this demonstration belies the ongoing struggle behind it.

When Mozambique gained independence in 1975 hundreds of thousands of skilled Portuguese workers left almost overnight, which had a devastating effect on the country’s economy. So in 1979 President Samora Machel’s new left-wing government made an agreement with socialist East Germany to send Mozambican men and a number of women there to study, train as apprentices and work in the former German Democratic Republic or GDR’s state-run enterprises, the Volkseigener Betriebe, with the aim to return with new skills to help build their country.

“I was sent to learn carpentry when I was 21 and then got a work contract for four years. Others were employed to cut trees, work in abattoirs or in the coal industry,” said Cossa.

Lázaro Magalhães a Escova is another Magerman, now working as an administrator for ICMA, the Mozambican-German Cultural Institute, in Maputo. “There were many different reasons why the men wanted to go. They came from different provinces, to escape war, hunger or forced recruitment into the armed forces. In my case I wanted to see Europe. Before I left I went for two days’ induction training and then I got on a plane.”

The workers received 40 percent of their salaries in cash while the other 60 percent was sent back to Mozambique. “We were told that on our return there would be a bank account waiting for each of us,” said Magalhães.

They worked until the end of the decade when tensions within East Germany increased culminating in the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. “We were happy when the barriers came down but were afraid of the skinheads and neo-Nazis who didn’t like foreigners and we worried what would happen if we no longer had government protection,” said Magalhães.

“After unification we heard that they were going to close the state factories and the Mozambican government gave us a choice ‘Either stay on your own account or we pay your flight back.’”

Many chose to go home but the decision was not an easy one. “Some of the wives and children came to the airport. The women were crying and begging their husbands not to go,” recalled Magalhães.

Yet those heading back believed it was the start of a prosperous new future. “We had great expectations. I was planning to start my own carpentry business making windows, doors and furniture and then bring my girlfriend from Germany. But when we got here the money was gone. The government had eaten it all and my hopes fell to the bottom of the sea,” said Cossa.

While the German government has records showing that the money was sent it appears the individual accounts were never set up by the government in Mozambique.

The Magermans also found it difficult to adjust to life back home.

“Our neighbours wore ragged clothes and we arrived dressed as gentleman. There were no televisions or videos in Mozambique. We brought them,” said Cossa.

Many also found their newly acquired skills were redundant. “A number of men had worked in car assembly plants, for Trabant, but when they arrived back in Mozambique there were hardly any cars and no car industry,” said Magalhães. With their ‘European ways’ they stood out from the crowd and it was then that they became known locally as the Magermans

Some of the workers did find jobs with one Magerman opening a string of successful bakeries across Maputo. Yet as the months passed the majority found themselves without work or money and within a year of their return they began to protest outside the Ministry of Labour.

“We were just asking for what was rightfully ours but the government sent armed police to deal with us,” recalled Magalhães. The protests have continued to this day with their case passing from one Ministry to another without resolution.

In 2002 official enquiries were made with the German authorities to see if there was a case to answer. A document, in possession of the Magermans, released by the German Federal Ministry of Finance, shows that 74.4-million dollars in salaries and 18.6-million dollars in social security were paid by the former GDR, figures which equate to approximately 5,000 dollars per worker. The Mozambican government accepted that a much smaller amount was owed and began to make payments of 10,000 t0 15,000 Meticais (or between 370 to 550 dollars) to some of the workers.

Over the years many of the men lost contact with the families they left behind. Now in their late twenties, some of the children have come to Mozambique looking for their fathers. ICMA is one of the places they contact first.

“We get emails from families almost every day. One girl came and found her father living in a hut made of mud bricks and palm leaves. She stayed there for a while and then took him back to Germany,” said Magalhães.

Cossa explained that the next step for the Magermans is a meeting with Prime Minister Aires Ali.

“We’ve made a formal request but nothing is scheduled. It may take a while to get it but we’ve already been waiting 22 years. What difference does a few months make? While we still have strength we will never give up.”