Tunisia struggles to rebuild state, economy, society

A tense calm held today along Tunisia’s border with Libya after Tunisian authorities restored order to the main crossing, where local residents yesterday clashed with refugees stranded there. Tens of thousands of refugees have fled Libya's fighting to neighbouring Tunisia, which is itself struggling to rebuild its government and economy after a popular uprising forced out its long-time president and set off the wave of pro-democracy protests now sweeping the Arab world.

After years as one of the region’s most economically stable and diversified countries, though lacking in political freedoms, the people of Tunisia began in December of last year to mount an increasingly intense and organized campaign of civil resistance and agitation, which culminated in the ouster of the man who had ruled as the country’s president since 1987, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the resignation or removal of many of Ben Ali’s closest collaborators, and eventually, the complete dissolution of Ben Ali’s ruling party.

In March, the country’s interim caretakers announced that an election of delegates to a Constitutional Assembly would be held this coming July.

One of the main concerns is how much of the old constitutional order to scrap, and how thoroughly: the UN's anti-torture agency this week called on Tunisia to establish a new and comprehensive judicial system. After a fact-finding mission, UN Special Rapporteur Juan Mendez this week called on Tunisia’s interim Government to seize the opportunity of the current transition to make changes that will prevent torture. “It is a transition,” he said, adding, “what is important is that the government says it is no longer tolerated.” Although he said the practice did not seem to be systematic, Mendez did find that people have been tortured in Tunisia since the revolution, and called on the government to carry out "aggressive" investigations into widespread torture during Ben Ali’s rule.

Listen to Chris Altieri's report: