2012-06-22
Tunisia solicits foreign help to counter al-Qaeda threat
By Houda Trabelsi for Magharebia in Tunis – 22/06/12
Tunisia's army needs "logistical support" to "boost its capabilities in confronting the danger of al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)", Defence Minister Abdelkarim Zbidi told US Ambassador to Tunisia Gordon Gray earlier this week in Tunis.
Zbidi on Tuesday (June 19th) requested help to bolster the army's "operational capability and aptitude to perform its mission of guaranteeing stability in the country’s border areas", TAP reported.
The minister stressed Tunisia's "keenness on more co-ordination and co-operation with neighbouring countries to help secure the region and ensure its stability". He also underscored his country's "endeavours to preserve the security of Mediterranean region in the framework of institutional co-operation relations based on partnership and reciprocity".
Tunisia has earlier warned that AQIM gunmen sneaked into the country across the border with Libya and Algeria and are threatening the region's security.
"Tunisia is considered a strategic point in AQIM's plans to impose its domination on the ground," Bassel Torjman, an expert in Maghreb affairs and specialist in Islamic movements, told Magharebia.
The request for help is "very logical" in this context, he added, and "does not mean that the Tunisian army has an armament problem". "Rather, it's a matter related to the need to monitor these groups which are spread over very large desert areas in a border triangle between Libya, Tunisia and," Torjman explained.
Tunisia has a 1,000km border with Algeria and 500km border with Libya. Arms smuggling has spread since the ouster of former Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi who was killed in October 2011.
"The request for support is primarily aimed at protecting Tunisian soil and preventing a repetition of the Malian model in southern Tunisia and areas along it in Libya and Algeria," Torjman said.
"The threat facing Tunisia is serious and big and needs more than logistical, intelligence and information support," he noted. "This is because the capabilities the extremist groups have obtained in terms of weapons and equipment, especially from Libya, will give them major military capacities making their threats to the area an extremely dangerous thing."
The expert suggested that terrorist groups may possess "heavy weapons", such as "surface-to-surface missiles with a range of more than 20 kilometers".
The state "can seek support" if it is not able to provide security and stability, Lotfi Azzouz, director of Amnesty International Tunisia, told Magharebia.
"However, we have to ensure that all types of provided support for training military, security and police forces will help enhance the foundations of accountability, principles of international human rights law and international humanitarian law," he added.
Meanwhile, a Tunisian military airstrike late Wednesday night destroyed a convoy of arms traffickers in Tataouine, TAP reported on Thursday (June 21st).
The occupants of three vehicles reportedly initiated the incident by firing on an aircraft that was patrolling the extreme southern border region.
The convoy was reportedly transporting arms from Libya.
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![[AFP/Mahmud Turkia] Tunisia seeks "more co-ordination and co-operation with neighbouring countries to help secure the region and ensure its stability", Tunisian Defence Minister Abdelkarim Zbidi says.](/awi/images/2012/06/22/120622Feature2Photo1-271_179.jpg)
POST YOUR COMMENT 10
Tounsi 2012-7-17
To Anonymous – Each person is able to make his own opinions about this and that other person’s writings. Here is a free piece of advice for your information: Islamist opportunism is a pleonasm and all your comments stink of it violently!!! But when you fall into a pool of quicksand, flailing about speeds up the sinking. Stay Zen – inasmuch as you are! Remember, a victory at the ballot – even a regular one? – does not give you all the rights. The last word always belongs to the demos. We will discuss this again, God willing.
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Anonymous 2012-7-14
To Tounsi – I wondered whether your aggressive shouting and nonsensical ravings were worth the bother of responding. Out of pity for your troubled mind, which is exploding with foul language, insults and gratuitous accusations, I decided to dot a few i’s while limiting myself to this space. As I see it, you suffer from dyslexia, which is to say a disorder in understanding written language and its use. I spoke of the thugs that call themselves the opposition, which is to say that they take on this name in order to spread alarmist news in Tunisia like you do with your scribbling. The aim is to harm the country’s reputation by making believe that the fall of the dictatorship has transformed it into complete anarchy, where terrorism is prominent. This is not the opinion of the international community, which saluted the success of Tunisia’s first free and transparent elections. You therefore need to accept living in a democracy whether you like it or not. Stigmatising the Tunisians by describing them as corrupt and selling themselves out for petrodollars is a disgraceful lie and base manoeuvring, practiced by the thugs who out of hatred for the new Tunisia want to scare off tourists and investors and are calling for the army to become subversive and overthrow the government. You take yourself for a medium by affirming without knowing me that I am an Islamist. This is poor spiritedness, and you are not the only one to engage in it. If I were Islamist, I would not hide it. This accusation was the alibi of Ben Ali’s thugs to pass off their dishonesty. I will not garnish you with any epithets. The venom that flows from your foul language and the rage that you are incapable of controlling speaks volumes already.
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bcg 2012-7-10
The Tunisian president wants residents of the Maghreb to be able to enter Tunisia without a passport while the Tunisians have to enter there countries with a passport???!!!
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Tounsi 2012-6-30
[2] Continuation- These terrorists came on scene with the Islamists and are authorised to and paid to establish the Islamist order by violence, intimidation and doublespeak. And if there are elements of Ben Ali-ism that seek to recycle themselves, which is inevitable, they are now bearded and do not miss a single prayer at the mosque because they know what matters to the Islamists is appearances, even though “the clothes have never made the man”! We know well that all these late converts are trying to make the people who overthrew their regime pay – and the price is high because they are supporting an anachronistic party that will oppress all the forces of progress and modernism. For self-respecting opportunists, the priority is to preserve the privileges (meaning the crumbs that they are used to) regardless of the nature of the power in place. They have no convictions and no values to defend. The Islamists are generous with the petrodollars and sprinkle anyone who puts on their robe, lets their beard grow and lurks outside the mosques for a bit, which is how they score and have promotion. But it must be known that the Islamists are only executing the orders of their financiers and sponsors and that they do not decide anything and do not know where they are taking Tunisia. Anonymous, you and the rascals like you should know that the "pseudo-victory at the elections" does not give you all of the rights. Hitler also won power in the elections. When the foundations of democracy are bullied, fascist excesses are inevitable. May the Islamists remember that the people are sovereign and that they will overthrow all forms of tyranny. It is only a matter of time!!!
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Tounsi 2012-6-30
[1] To Anonymous- I quote: “The number-one danger threatening Tunisia comes from this amalgam of thugs who call themselves the opposition and who are in the process of spreading alarmist news …” This is what should be done!!! This opposition, which you call thugs, is the authentic crafter of toppling Ben Ali’s corrupt, infiltrated, puppet regime. It is the revolutionary forces of Tunisia – the patriots, democrats, leftist forces, farmers, workers, unemployed people, women, young people – the people of the deep Tunisia. There are no thugs here. The popular insurrection at the price of the blood of Tunisia’s sons is the work of these forces, and up until now the Islamists have stayed in their borrows waiting for the time to come to reap the ripe fruit – and all of this comes on the background of manipulation called the damned “Arab spring”. That the Islamists, to whom you unequivocally belong, call the people of deep Tunisia “thugs” takes my breath away! The thugs came on scene with the Islamists, who, as is their habit, still exploit the flaws of their fellows to open the prison doors and give amnesty to all sorts of degenerates and pay them in cash to then become their most zealous militia – the most ferocious “fighters against vice and for the promotion of virtue”! The criminals came on scene with the Islamists, who use them like scarecrows against the most sensitive groups of people, the women and the young, to establish an atmosphere of terror that subjects people to them for lack of being able to rally them. These terrorists came on scene with the Islamists and are authorised and paid to establish … (To be continued in [2])
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Anonymous 2012-6-27
The number-one danger threatening Tunisia comes from this amalgam of thugs who call themselves the opposition and who are in the process of spreading alarmist news throughout the country in order to isolate it internationally. Let us not forget that the members of the opposition have publicly called for the commander of Tunisia’s Armed Forces, General Rachid Ammar, to conduct a coup d’état and seize power. What is remarkable in these conditions is that this call was not followed by punishment. This is because the government wants to avoid aggravating the tension at all cost. But, on the contrary, the enemies of the government see this as a sign of weakness and a green light for their extremism.
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Angedenuit 2012-6-27
I indeed read that the Tunisian government was going to open its border to the countries of the Maghreb without any monitoring while the Tunisians would be forced to show their passport to enter these brother countries! This is ideal to facilitate transit, vacation and the immigration of good preachers, mercenaries and arms. What does the Tunisian army think?
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Tounsi 2012-6-24
The Tunisian leaders are playing with fire and the regional situation is a powder keg. They will have to assume full responsibility before the Tunisian people.
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Rudy 2012-6-23
Most importantly, do not go confess to the Devil. Do you remember what the diplomatic circles said: “Why are there no coups d’état or revolts subsidised by foreigners in the United States?” The answer is that it is because there are no American embassies there! And once you have let them in, they are difficult to make leave.
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di maccio marc 2012-6-22
Do not worry at all, brother Tunisians, Mama France is here and will not let anyone spoil the party there.
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