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Tunis, Tunisia – Dozens of Tunisians gathered Monday night on the main avenue of the capital to protest against the planned visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Prince Mohammed, known by his MBS initials, is expected to arrive in Tunisia on Tuesday afternoon as part of a regional tour to attend the G20 summit to be held in Argentina at the end of the month.
It is also the first overseas tour of the MBS after the badbadination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul two months ago. The murder – widely perceived as orchestrated by the Crown Prince – has created an international storm of fire against Saudi Arabia that continues to resonate.
"As a Tunisian citizen, I reject Bin Salman's visit to Tunis," civil society activist Ashraf Aouadi told Al Jazeera.
Tunisia adheres to a "human rights framework" that should protect the rights of the Yemeni people, preserve the right of journalists to do their job and grant women activists the right to express themselves freely, said Awadi.
In addition to Khashoggi's badbadination, Aouadi was referring to recent reports of torture and badual harbadment against Saudi women activists and in the war. led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen for four years, which caused the most serious humanitarian crisis in the world.
"It provokes me that we [Tunisia] reject this framework for economic interests, "he said.
Although the Royal Saudi Court has not clarified the program of the official visit, Tunisia has long received Saudi aid funds. The air forces of both countries held their first joint exercise in October, a sign of stronger relations.
"Tunisia, land of revolution"
The faces being painted in black and white, a group of stage performers broke through the series of cascading steps where the hundred protesters gathered to perform a skit mime.
Amid cheering and laughter from the crowd, the main artist, dressed in traditional tribal attire, began throwing paper planes at his peers.
They were playing the war against Yemen, where a military alliance led by the UAE and UAE used air raids against rebel Houthi targets, but also affected many civilian areas. It is thought that tens of thousands of people have died since the beginning of the war.
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| Protesters disguised as clowns occur during a demonstration opposing Prince Mohammed's visit [Asma Ajroudi/Al Jazeera] |
"In simple terms, we came here today to say that the Tunisian people – who exported the revolution to the rest of the population" [Arab] and who fought for justice, dignity and human rights – can not accommodate a criminal like bin Salman, "said Hamza Nasri, the mime artist playing the MBS.
Tunisia made the headlines in 2011 after Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, a long-time autocrat, was deposed following mbadive demonstrations, sparking a wave of uprisings across the Middle East that led to the three other Arab presidents.
But the fallen ruler has been a fugitive in Saudi Arabia since 2011, and Riyadh has consistently ignored Tunis's extradition demands.
Instead, Ben Ali was sentenced to long prison terms and heavy fines in a series of trials in absentia, for charges of complicity in the murder of several hundred people. protesters during the uprising, embezzlement of public funds, drug trafficking, weapons and archaeological objects. .
"Perhaps as a people in the past we [Tunisians] could not speak our minds. But today, we can do it, "said Emna Mizouni, another protester.
"It is shameful for Tunisia, which has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, to receive somebody like that," she said of the Saudi Crown Prince.
In 2015, the Tunisian National Dialogue Quarter, a democracy group credited for preventing another uprising in the country, received the International Peace Prize.
MBS also went to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, all of Saudi Arabia's convinced allies, and is expected to travel to Argentina for the G20 summit on Friday.
Because Tunisia is a pioneering country in the promotion of human rights, "there is no reason not to say no to MBS," said Mizouni.
"Everyone is against oppression by liming Unfortunately, our Arab brothers could not organize such demonstrations," she said, adding that the demonstration did not only highlight the wrath of Tunisians but spoke "in the name of all oppressed Arab peoples" who could not publicly organize to condemn the Crown Prince's policy.
Similar art demonstrations took place when Ben Ali invited the Israeli prime minister at the end of the reign Ariel Sharon in Tunis in 2005 and several Tunisians also protested against the visit of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
"This is not new," said Aouadi. The fact is that "Tunisia after the revolution continues to receive leaders and officials with blood on their hands," he said. The same people who protested against Sharon and others are here to express their rejection of this, said Aouadi.
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| A banner depicts Prince Mohammed holding a chainsaw and says: "No to the desecration of Tunisia, land of revolution" [Asma Ajroudi/Al Jazeera] |
Symbolic trials
MBS's trip to Tunis, announced last week, sparked a widespread condemnation of civil society for several days.
On Monday, the Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) announced its intention to prosecute Prince Mohammed in the international court for "war crimes committed by the Saudi regime in Yemen".
In an open letter to President Beji Caid Essebsi a few days earlier, the union criticized MBS as "a danger to the security and peace of the region and the world and a real threat to freedom of expression".
"Tunisians reject war crimes committed in Yemen and gross human rights violations against Saudi activists like Jamal Khashoggi," SNJT member Sakina Abdel Samad told reporters on Tuesday. ;a press conference.
A giant poster of the Saudi prince holding a chainsaw was hung in front of the group office. "No to the profanation of Tunisia, land of the revolution", reads in the banner.
In another symbolic gesture, a group of 50 lawyers announced that they had also taken action in a Tunisian court to pressure the government to cancel the visit of the Crown Prince.
"We have officially requested an investigation into the crimes committed by bin Salman," Nizar Boujalal, a spokesman for lawyers, told reporters.
The involvement of MBS in Yemen – in addition to its alleged role in Khashoggi's badbadination and detention of activists – has made it possible to closely monitor the country's relations with its Western allies.
It remains to be seen which leaders shake hands and pose for photos with the Crown Prince at the G20 Buenos Aires later this week.
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