A newspaper in india last november the two new zero is now as secure as any country in the world its not true is that when i think compared to two thousand and fifteen sixteenths i can repeat the same Statement Today as secure as any country in the world there are five areas listed as no go areas by the state department u. S. State department no but i mean when i said this because i compared with two thousand fifteen when we had the first terrorist attack attack and then on the night two thousand sixteen today i think that our forces are better trained well equipped but not as secure as any country in the world as most of the countrys elite yes when you read what the state department has to say give you an example western mountains and chandon National Park terrorist groups continue to operate in the mountains of western tunisia job are ok for. Kasserine the algerian border terrorist groups continue to operate in these areas city busied in central tunisia terrorist groups continue to operate in this area that doesnt sound very safe frankly these are the first days apartment theres no was talking about let me tell you these are the fringes i mean on the border of tunisia these are you have talking about mountains and these mountains of course weve never said that talk about territory in tunisia yet but these are. These are very small groups they are very well tackled by our forces we know them where they are moving and we are following that but i put it to you that your voice is dangerously misleading limits a lot of people believe the state department with the biggest most sophisticated Intelligence Service in the world or the ministry of a country that wants to revive its tourist and military thing which this state department is not saying that we need is not secure and i just sang places not to go again not go there yeah but do not go in youll also have places where not to go where were working very very well out not terrorist threats they are all over the world yes but theyre not no go areas because were sitting idly there is no territory in tunisia held by terrorists there is no one i know that they said no terrorist groups continue to operate in this area three three four five areas yes but he said that they are not Holding Territories they are a few groups they are acting we are following them but they have been this threat we are aware of it but they are not targeting we are not doing like other middle Eastern Countries where the terrorists were able to hold the reprise tunisia is completely and their control of the state misses you know your own interior minister gave a vivid picture of the hugely extensive terrorist operating in your country he said in twenty seventeen it broken up forty networks sending terrorists to conflict zones six Terror Networks more than one hundred twenty terrorist recruit. Selves how many hundreds of others are there that you dont know about you havent got this is a huge Extensive Network of terrorists operating in new york yes but these are from the interior and. These these shows first of all that our forces now they know about the sense they were working to give us the cells they dont know about the next one yet but they know that but lets be very happy that to tell you that the last two years two neither was immune of any terrorist threat this is the belief that of our Security Forces. You have several thousand tunisians who went off to fight with isis and reputed to be the largest per capita number from any country some of them have been filtering back home we dont know how good your border controls are in twenty fifteen report by Transparency International said your security and Customs Officials suffered from a lack of transparency and scrutiny so we dont know how good your border controls are these people coming back in the first round be complacent and affected speaking first of all speaking about several thousands i think here you are exaggerating these are reports by the media these are reports they said several several thousand dollars i didnt say seven i said several several thousands nobody is able to count them to say that there are three of these are people working i mean fighting in the hot spots nobody and they are coming and they have suffered and you have no property Radicalization Program in your country no property Radicalization Program according to the tunisian form for economic and social rights theres not a program there is no problem of what sort of radicalization of course there is of course there is there is a comprehensive policy regarding trying to direct radicalize all these young people its a reason that they are they say whatever they like what theyre telling you on behalf of the government that there is a National Comprehensive program that link with the working with women with the in education in social affairs and its involvement on the department of and maybe but a lot of these people have come back a sitting under house arrest but even if youre going to deal with them of course of a summit and thats not the radicalisation not even israel can in any in any democratic country were which is the respecting the rule of law these people when they come back of course they are held and theyre waited where the police and if found guilty big. To the court and of course they will be prosecuted because it lets talk about your claim to be respecting the law because your governments commitment to human rights and democracy has also been contested the International Crisis group warned last month or two newsier was drifting back towards its old or thora tarion reflexes something im sure you will deny but Freedom House reported that your failure to consolidate democracy meant a sharp decline in this years Freedom Index reflecting a pattern of authoritarian behavior and the president subsidy but Freedom House rated two needs are the first. And the meta reason Freedom House to easy is the most free country and that its not living up to the hopes says with the latest downgrade theyve downgraded it is number one now they downgraded i let you take the me and that is about one but they have downgraded our lead to better latest downgrade tunisia has come dangerously close to losing its status as the only free glees to emerge from the arab states these kind of reports this is not reported by everybody these frankly speaking i dont know which most of most of the human rights organizations western youre right organization they do not have a good picture and i want to go into some of these they do not have a good picture of your progress towards a democratic swell let me tell you what we are doing in the program well explain to you that we are but i just want to make the point that it didnt inspire confidence last september that three of the new faces in the government had served as ministers during the dictatorship of ben ali and if they are able and capable to do to handle their departments i mean that does not mean they have not got prosecuted by the by the justice they were never said that these people you know the committed any crime that you have the old system what signal does that send what depends what the purpose of the revolution for if you little bring back all these old faces yes all traitors but the of these people be they didnt serve i mean a lot of dictator here. They were not. Implicated you know involved in any criminality is there is no reason not to or frankly speaking in a democratic system there is no reason to recruit able people to run the country when there arent that the country is going through transition so we are using as a test of our generally did you really imagine tunisia and staged a revolution in order to see these old and discredited faces brought back according to the Carnegie Endowment bensalem. Hatem ben salem was widely seen as an apologist of the old regime for denying its Human Rights Violations also controversially or finance minister really the child girl who was named in the Carnegie Endowment posting as being close to the ben ali family and these really are the people you want that will frankly a lot about that every battle engine is definitely not there are many people but these people going to think about what signal that were sending there is no signal we didnt choose them because they belong to the old regime i mean the chief of the government the Prime Minister chose them because he thought that these people are the right people for the this time the department of education and the finest it is not you want to collect you want to correct the evils of the past and you bring back the people who dont back in sociate it becomes ilsley about that these people they were not involved in security didnt. Have thirty people or they were not involved in touch these people are a Civil Servant the ministers they were minister yes they have these two people they were running technical departments they were not related to politics even the uns High Commission and we have the right how our government handled this that i yes the uns High Commissioner for human rights has a to kill early exercised by the many hundreds of people you arrested and felt the need to remind you that all those detained should have full respect for their rights. Those concerns were justified with let me first tell you with a protest in the democracy its a healthy sign. Our founders larry about the way let it lay thing about here wages handled yes throw away the whole fight to protest let me tell you openly and that actually in that our forces handle these protests with a lot of professionalism there was no single casualties these there were running tours that were loose but no single country if in any democracy in the world it can happen some some accident but here sitting over there these were accidents and generally the thirty first Human Rights Watch accused your police of beating up some of the people detained and denying their right to a lawyer under two new zealand law thats a direct violation of your own laws. Im not aware of this practice because i dont know from where youre reading this Tunisian League of human rights just visited twenty three suspects yes in the morning or gear prison on january the seventeenth they reported that most of them had marks consistent with beatings on their bodies but sister allegations of mistreatment mistreatment of police see a deliberate policy introduced today i can tell you know if there are so your memories are out of control i know but if theyre out and saying didnt i cant i cant say what had presented the didnt happen but this is not what they can afford to do today but this is not a deliberate state police to get back the military is not its pretty careless then if it isnt a state policy because its going on there is no witnesses were interviewed and victims were interviewed as well according to Human Rights Watch some people were arrested simply for distributing leaflets that the government didnt like calling for soldiers are there there is they they are as your commitment is very speedy as the u. S. And six had the people on seven hundred are when i point out one thousand seven hundred more than seven hundred people most all of them they have been freed those who were involved in looting vandalism they went to the court and they have been persecuted according to the law tunisia today is a country which respects the role of the rule of law to call them all criminals and looters its the same kind of no matter the old regime and you see you all of them now frankly speaking of the i didnt say theyre all of them there who some of these people are expressing real social dispatcher have minustah and they are in the last week they are because not like governments in the last seven years of failed to meet their expectations of the nine governments but. Let me tell you with this living in the transition and in any transition period of course you. Have stability of the government this is this is the question this is the how is the transition going forwards or backwards its going as a lot of these radical not just that theyre going to announce that there is a National Consensus not just the government including the opposition but the demarc that it is a national who will to consolidate the transitional the democratic transition in tunisia and there is no going back there is no returning and there is no there is a strong will to continue on the path of course we did take the democratic process were proud of that during last years universal periodic review of the Union Human Rights council your country came under sustained criticism for aspects of its behavior the international as well as many other groups voiced concern about impunity for torture and pointed out there had actually been few if any successful prosecutions of your officials for torture thats a disgraceful cannot mention first of all let me these cases they are in the court and if they are in the court today in tunisia we will keep to have an independent justice so its up to the Justice Courts to decide about the supreme not in the special rapporteur on the promotion of truth justice and reparations said last year many alleged perpetrators of gross Human Rights Violations remained active in your Security Services how can that be. So special rapporteur on the promotion of truth justice and resurrection is it really as you see hes a un special rapporteur or so he reported at you universal periodic review session here last year at the un Human Rights Council saying that the we continued saying that many alleged perpetrators are still employed and active in your Security Services so you dont even suspend them when they are no suspicion and well i think most of them they been have. Suspended i dont say that one had percent now there is no people suspected to be be involved in these kind of practices but the most of them are found one of the penalties for torture in your country its a balance its not such torture is forbidden by law an example of that is not is in two cases in july twenty fifteen where officials were found guilty they received a suspended sentence but thats not bad not a deterrent yes but thats not the government meeting torture yes but thats not a government of presiding over a country that doesnt deal with basic justice here but this is the mother of justice is not the mother who you are talking to executive minister alexander you proud of this i am not of course i am not so whats going to govern about is happening if we are i am sure my people and our people let their looking into to these shortcomings and they are trying their best to address them. There Amnesty International put it since two thousand and eleven the overwhelming majority of credible allegations of torture and other serious violations by Security Forces have not been independently and impartially investigated is that the sort of country that you would want to preside theres another bit of there where they think that its not about making this stuff up mark most people have lost most most of the tunisian people most of the political families in tunisia and this is not the case the kind of country they want they want to full fledge democratic country we are proud of the she went we have already made we are not yet a democracy to be honest we are not yet a democracy we never pretended that we are forward we finished actively our promises we have over masses we are on the path of reaching a democratic system where transparency the rule of law one hundred percent will be respected decision we have made your mayor mrs you told the Human Rights Council your government last year in response to their many criticisms that you would ensure all allegations of torture impartially investigated when but let me when you heard the liberal reiterate that commitment of the government if my my people you know said to the injury lever this that shows that of course they are doing but when how frankly you are asking me question did a good question which if you knew that you were going to ask me this i would have brought you the details for you what are you a human rights minister met told Amnesty International last year it was taking time he said taking time to overcome the ben ali legacy my question to you why is it taking time if you tell your police not to torture people anymore why is it taking time for them to have daily or a well first of all we have to educate our police we have to train them so they were out of it we dont always people you know that is yes but you dont torture p. T. S. Yes but not so difficult to understand it is not a matter of torture its a matter of were. King serving the democratic system they suffer now that theyre out of control youre saying you cant control i mean i dont say that they are out of control but i mean this is not the mainstream of the Reason Police what you have depicted here is a wrong picture the mainstream is trying to respect the rule of law to respect the democratic system but maybe in this case there are some cases and never pretended that this is over its going to take time but there is a political will strong will to work towards having a full fledged democracy where the respect of human rights and the rule of law will be the rule of the government mr general what makes your promise so difficult to believe is that you are pressing ahead with a new law that would actually extend the impunity of your Security Services this is the repression of attacks against Armed Forces Bill this bill that is in Committee Stage at the moment. Human Rights Groups say if your promises to the Human Rights Committee were genuine youd scrap this extensive appeal if you love the Security Services to get away for millions not yet violations this bill is not yet adopted it is under discussion it has been controversial that means that the government and those who present that be listening to the people and they im sure there will be reform get according to the will of the people. Youre sure about that when i said so why are you sure you did there are two very controversial aspects of this law and your interior minister said the other way this law was going to go through it wouldnt be withdrawn theyre not going to withdraw it criminalizing socalled denigration of police and other Security Services and. The law about secrets the proposal that anyone who discloses publishes National Security related secrets can spend ten years in jail and well well the idea is that its now and the discussion and if there are any reforms amendment to the law there will be taken care of and they will be. Met accordingly theres a huge protest thats caused huge protests from Civil Society in the two new shows Police Forces who would like to get more like to get away with any violation they want to practice thats the truth isnt it yeah this law if it goes through as it is written of them i would allow that it will not get as it is as i said its and a discussion and im sure all these observation will be taken care of when the law will be out of the bill and already under attack it is and that discussion by the parliament and there are in the Parliament TenPolitical Parties so its not the government which is around it this is your parliament youre already under attack for the law that you have passed which is the socalled administrative reconciliation law lets be clear it grant amnesty to Civil Servants who facilitated corruption under the bally regime without putting them through any Legal Process what so i let me explain to you this is getting away with everything doesnt it none of this is not getting weve passed this here this isnt really going through let me explain to you this low because you are getting a wrong ever made about that look this is a law regarding those just Civil Servant who are working under the benign you who got the instruction the political instruction. Do you know so that was really the responsibility because they were ordered to do something bad what you said that they had no personal responsibility not only the difference no right and wrong not whether they were instrumental or not see what happens now in the administration which is a quite an important tool for granting you know the success of the transition in the Administration Today nobody is able and ready to sign anything. He wants to get you know protection the law directly contradicts what the Prime Minister said when he came to power in twenty sixteen he said our slogan today is no immunity for corruption to anyone but no to hiding behind political cover which is what they do is corruption crimes will not pass and then you pass this law of this which allows that you say to these people they didnt get money in that book they didnt come after anybody they just you know they were in the lower iraqi they just implemented decision so this law has been utterly rejected by the International Center for Transitional Justice as well as your own National Council of the Bar Association so popular is it that this is all summed up in the virtual zero there is a debate going on in tunisia like the laws being passed here but the no i mean we thought that this is a way to help the administration running the daily business of a government so theres a way to help people escape their responsibility no that does not serve their party in the dictatorship if they have committed any crime this law does not protect them them from being prosecuted for any crime or corruption because this is just related to the civil civil part of the job you have to read the law it has nothing to do i mean if you have been Bar Association with the law and they came up with a completely different career because of this this also who is looking after justice them or you know that they are there but and the justice is not us who are looking after we are the executive branch and we are not equal to the justice you keep passing these laws which are certain poppy that you want the the west and the i. M. F. To continue funding these anti democratic processes its not the most critical of president s because it is not going to this is according to your lawyers a. S. L. s according to the International Organization of some of our lawyers not all of them some of their big contest bits the row they are in the right to contest it but that doesnt mean that the other night where in the democracy. People waiting for milestones theyre waiting for the much delayed Constitutional Court yes which was probably theyre waiting for municipal elections i have delayed and delayed we see a Prime Minister who promises that this will be the last difficult year for the people of tunis he has hes in no position to make a promise like why not why you dont know that well let me first regarding the cause of the Constitutional Court it will be there before the end of two thousand and eighteen the very was a. Prime minister pledges a promise this and it is and now there is a proposal in front of the parliament thats the way it be in that story is late yet but this is where this is before the end of the one date of the government of this government deal at the municipal election would be taking place all the six of me and just the Prime Minister said that that date will be respected and the election will will take will take place thats a promise is a it is not probably is a commitment all right thats just how its been good to have you on the program thank you very much for being with us thank you thanks. My big brother its very moving for me to hold you in my arms. My name is. Right im a popular in chief of the holy tribe and an ambassador of the forest i travel the world to share a message that concerns us all. My force is threatened. Because the fifteen minutes. We make up oh but we watch as folks that kind of educators we are Civil Service and. The want to shape the continents future. Market and join african youngsters as they share their stories their dreams and their challenges. The seventy seven percent of the platform for africa charge. Is. The scars on some odd. Flock for going to the four cities in. They have survived but do they also have a future. I really understand people who say they do want to stay here. But i also admire people who want to stay here and who decided to create something. In peace time what needs to happen if tolerance and reconciliation are to stand a chance to start this citys after war starting march tenth w. Want to see whats going on and all of the emergency that you know what the after provided. The shock microscope that been spent the knowledge that would come better and better and better over there yes we will end the bad fall for example of the viral infection but the molecular detail and therefore people at the bottom of the pie did much more easily to speculate about whats going on that led to fifty i cant imagine that you would add to that because the got much better and then to do with the number of cancer cases there is the belief of much more fulfilling life because many diseases shortcomings causes of aging tend to counteract that a large degree yet people but they held for a longer period in their life. Maybe u. S. President donald trump says that Arming Teachers could help prevent mass cool shootings he made the comment during an emotional white house meeting with students who survived last weeks massacre at Marjorie StonemanDouglas High School in florida thousands rallied at the State Capitol in tallahassee as another group of students pleaded with legislators to pass tougher gun laws and. U. N. Secretary general Antonio Gutierrez has called for