US embassy cable - 05PARIS7777

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 007777 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/7/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, KDEM, TS, FR 
SUBJECT: ASSAULT OF FRENCH JOURNALIST IN TUNISIA PROMPTS 
MEDIA OUTCRY, DOMESTIC CRITICISM OF GOF HUMAN RIGHTS POLICY 
 
REF: 03 PARIS 8954 
 
Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt, reasons 
1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1. (C) Summary: The November 11 assault of a French 
journalist in Tunis by unknown assailants widely believed to 
belong to the Tunisian security services has prompted an 
outcry among French media, which has harshly criticized GoF 
complacency on Tunisia's human rights situation, with some 
leading dailies and opposition politicians calling for the 
France to boycott the World Summit for the Information 
Society (WSIS).  The GoF response, meanwhile, has been 
limited to cautious MFA statements calling for the Tunisian 
government to shed light on the attack and respect freedom of 
information.  MFA contacts confirmed that the controversy 
will not result in a GoF boycott of the WSIS, though the GoF 
delegation head, currently Finance Minister Breton, may be 
downgraded to a junior minister level, depending on the 
degree to which the issue continues to generate domestic 
controversy.  MFA contacts privately expressed pessimism on 
prospects for improvement in Tunisia's human rights situation 
in the wake of the WSIS, and were similarly negative on the 
likelihood of France taking a tougher stance on Tunisian 
human rights, as long as Chirac remains president.  End 
summary. 
 
2. (SBU) French media continues to report widely on the 
attack on "Liberation" correspondent Christophe Boltanksi, 
who was beaten and stabbed by four unknown assailants late 
November 11 in Tunis, after having extensively reported on 
human rights abuses on the eve of the GOT-hosted WSIS. 
Several French newspapers, led by "Liberation," have 
suggested that Boltanski's attack was perpetrated by Tunisian 
security services, though the identities of the attackers 
remain unknown and there is no definitive evidence. 
Boltanski, who did not require hospitalization and returned 
to France shortly after the attack, declared in press remarks 
that his attackers took their time, stole his bag containing 
interview notes, and were not stopped by the very heavy 
police presence in the diplomatic quarter where the attack 
took place.  Boltanksi dismissed the likelihood that the 
attack was criminally motivated, noting that foreign 
journalists in Tunisia are heavily monitored and that human 
rights activists in Tunisia have faced similar attacks from 
plain-clothes Tunisian security service officials.  Follow-up 
incidents of alleged GOT harassment of Belgian and Swiss 
journalists and a French "TV 5" news crew in Tunis continued 
to attract heavy French media coverage November 16. 
 
3. (SBU) In a November 13 statement issued some 40 hours 
after the Boltanski assault took place, the MFA declared, "We 
have made it known to the Tunisian authorities, in Paris and 
in Tunis, that we are counting on them to shed all light 
possible on the attack..."  In a follow-up statement November 
15, FM Douste-Blazy called on the GOT to respect freedom of 
information and not impede the work of journalists attending 
the WSIS, without protesting the Boltanski assault. 
"Liberation" November 14 decried the GoF's belated and mild 
reaction to the Boltanski attack and recurring human rights 
abuses in Tunisia, which it ascribed to longtime complacency 
by President Chirac towards the human rights situation in 
Tunisia, as a means of protecting French commercial and 
strategic interests there. "Liberation" and several other 
French dailies cited Chirac's widely reported comments during 
a December 2003 visit to Tunisia (reftel), in which he 
dismissed the concerns of protesting civil society activists 
in Tunisia and described the right to food as paramount above 
political liberties.  "Liberation" concluded that the French 
president had shown himself to be closer to Moscow and Havana 
on human rights issues, than fellow Western democracies.  A 
November 15 "Le Monde" editorial went further in making 
unfavorable comparisons between French and U.S. policy 
towards Tunisia, noting that the U.S. had not hesitated to 
call publicly for Tunisia to pursue political and human 
rights reforms, while France "did not have such courage." 
The "Le Monde" editorial concluded by calling on France to 
abstain from attending the WSIS, or, at minimum, to pressure 
Tunisia via the EU to comply with its EU association 
agreement obligations, which remained a "dead letter." 
Leaders of the opposition French Socialist party (PS) echoed 
the call for a WSIS boycott and called on the GoF to issue an 
"official protest" of the Boltanski assault. 
 
4. (C) MFA Tunisia desk officer Christian Reigneaud told us 
November 14 that the Boltanski attack would not affect GoF 
participation in the WSIS, for which Minister of 
Economy/Finance Thierry Breton would lead the French 
delegation.  In a follow-up discussion November 15, Reigneaud 
was more cautious, and noted that the degree of French media 
attention on the attack and consequent criticism of GoF human 
rights policy was unprecedented.  While Reigneaud affirmed 
that a GoF boycott of the WSIS was out of the question, he 
conceded that there was a slim possibility that the 
delegation head might be downgraded to the junior minister 
level, depending on the degree to which the issue continued 
to generate controversy, especially during the weekly 
audience by FM Douste-Blazy before the National Assembly 
foreign relations committee November 15.  Reigneaud commented 
that the GoT had viewed the GoF decision to send Breton to 
the WSIS as an "insult," given that the French PM had 
attended the first WSIS summit and that Tunis had lobbied 
unsuccessfully for Chirac's attendance. 
 
5. (C) Reigneaud remained skeptical on prospects for finding 
Boltanski's attackers or for any near-term improvement in 
Tunisia's human rights situation in the aftermath of the 
WSIS.  While noting there was no evidence of GoT involvement 
in the Boltanski assault, he mused that the GoT was effective 
in covering up such matters.  Stressing that he was 
expressing personal views, Reigneaud speculated that the 
modest gestures which Tunisia had made in the run-up to the 
WSIS -- allowing access to banned websites, for instance -- 
would evaporate as soon as the WSIS had ended, with the GoT 
likely to crack down on the hunger strikers as well.  Pressed 
for details on how the GoF was articulating its human rights 
concerns to the GOT, Reigneaud offered few details.  He noted 
that the French embassy in Tunis, for the first time, had 
received a representative of the eight hunger strikers 
November 14, though the GoF had opted not to send any emboffs 
to meet the hunger strikers themselves, which he said would 
cross a "red line" for the GoF and provoke a crisis with the 
GoT.  Explaining the degree to which the GoF sought to 
accommodate the GoT on human rights concerns, Reigneaud noted 
that when French FM Douste-Blazy met with representatives of 
the Tunisian League of Human Rights (LTDH) during a visit to 
Tunis last October, the French MFA received a delegation of 
pro-GOT LTDH members, as a quid pro quo requested by the GOT. 
 
6. (C) Pressed to explain why the GoF could not speak more 
forcefully with Tunisia on human rights, given the friendship 
between the two countries, Reigneaud (protect) commented that 
"everyone" in the MFA wanted to see the GoF take a more 
activist stance on political repression in Tunisia, which was 
entirely without justification, as a political opening posed 
no risk to the stability of the GoT.  On the contrary, 
continued suppression of basic political liberties by the 
GoT, out of step with Tunisia's economic success and educated 
population, could spell trouble for Tunisia's long-term 
stability and open the door to Islamist influence.  Reigneaud 
concluded, though, that, despite media criticism and the 
preferences of working level MFA officials, GoF human rights 
policy on Tunisia would remain unchanged as long as Chirac 
remained President.  In Reigneaud's view, the French leader's 
ties with Ben Ali were too long-standing for the French 
president to adopt a new approach. 
 
7. (C) Comment: We view this controversy as indicative of the 
degree to which President Chirac's "stability first" and 
tradition of cultivating close relations with aging Arab 
world dictators is increasingly out of step with current 
realities and prevailing media opinion in France.  While the 
media focus on the Boltanski attack may subside in coming 
days, we expect that the GoF will remain vulnerable to 
further domestic criticism for inaction on human rights 
issues in Tunisia -- as the MFA speculated, as long as Chirac 
remains president.  End comment. 
Please visit Paris' Classified Website at: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm 
Hofmann