May 2000 - North Africa Journal Monthly

An Interview with
Robin Raphel
US Ambassador to Tunisia

An April visit to Tunis offered the North Africa Journal the opportunity to talk with the American Ambassador to Tunisia, Robin Raphel, about the current state of relations between the US and Tunisia, the US-North Africa Economic Partnership (USNAEP), and the prospects for democracy and development in this North African country. With the possibilities for increased commercial and economic activity between the US and Tunisia growing vis-à-vis the USNAEP, and with the controversy emanating from Tunis regarding the arrest and subsequent hunger strike of a Tunisian journalist that coincided with the North Africa Journal interview, Ambassador Raphel candidly discussed the highlights and challenges of representing US interests in North Africa during her tenure from 1997 to the present.

Ambassador Raphel began her career as a lecturer in history at Damavand College in Tehran, Iran. She first worked for the United States government as an economic analyst for the CIA from 1973-1975. Moving then to Islamabad, Pakistan, she worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development as an economic/financial analyst, and thereafter joined the State Department. Upon her return to Washington, D.C. in 1978, Ambassador Raphel worked in the Office of Investment Affairs in the Economic and Business Bureau; on the Israel Desk; as Staff Aide for the Assistant Secretary for the Near East and South Asian Affairs Bureau; and as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs for the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. In 1984, Raphel was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in London where she covered the Middle East, South and East Asia, and Africa. She served as Counselor for Political Affairs both at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria (1988-1991), and at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi (1991-1993). In August 1993, she was named the first Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs where she proved herself no stranger to diplomacy and international affairs, serving at this post until 1997.

Ambassador Raphel began the interview by addressing the present state of political and economic relations between the US and Tunisia. "Politically, we’ve had relations with Tunisia – in one form or another – for over 200 years," she noted. "Historically, political relations between the US and Tunisia have always been good; sometimes more intense than others, but always good." But, she qualified, "on the economic and commercial side, [relations] have been more modest, especially in recent times. Because of Tunisia’s proximity to Europe and their historical ties to French-speaking countries, trade and investment has been concentrated more in Europe than the U.S." "We’re trying to alter this perspective a bit," she added optimistically, "and we believe there’s room for everybody--for us and the Europeans."

On April 18 of this year, the USNAEP Ministerial Meeting occurred in Washington, D.C. (for more details on the Eizenstat initiative and the USNAEP please see the previous article in this issue: "Investing in Tunisia: the US Perspective and the Prospects for Economic Cooperation").

Regarding the history and status of the USNAEP, Ambassador Raphel commented that "The idea behind the initiative was to find a way to stimulate economic and commercial ties, trade, and investment, using the private sector as the engine. It was another way of saying ‘trade not aid’" while the North African governments of Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria inch closer towards reconciling diplomatic differences and integrating their markets as demonstrated during the April Ministerial Meeting. "We’ve had a long-standing US Agency for International Development mission here [in Tunisia], but we phased that out in the mid-90s because Tunisia ‘graduated.’ [With] per captia income of $2500 per year they just don’t need so much US help anymore."

"The whole idea of the Eizenstat initiative was to increase ties between the private sectors of the US and the three North African countries bilaterally, but we also wanted to find ways to stimulate trade among these countries. Realizing that for the American investor, it would be easier and offer a more attractive market if we view North Africa as a whole."

The Ambassador also addressed the issue of the extremely poor state of US-Libyan relations and the possibilities of including Tunisia’s neighbor into the USNAEP. "Now, we’ve left out Libya for the moment for reasons I think everyone can recognize," Raphel remarked, "but they are part of the Maghreb. If political relations were to sort themselves out, as we hope they will in the not-too-distant future, it would be natural for them to be a part of this."

With thorny political issues like US-Libyan relations and also Moroccan-Algerian relations casting doubts on the viability of the USNAEP, the conversation turned to the very limited success of another North African regional effort, the largely moribund Arab Maghreb Union (AMU). The AMU was formed in 1989 and comprises Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Mauritania with the hopes of establishing, amongst other things, a free trade area. Diplomatic issues and inertia however, have stymied hopes of AMU growth and success. Some analysts question whether the USNAEP is doomed to the same fate as the AMU, especially in improving the prospects for North African intra-regional trade. Ambassador Raphel characterized the prospects for success in this area as "modest, in the near future." But qualifying her earlier statement, Raphel noted that "Tunisia, naturally, is the country most interested on both the political and economic side, in the AMU. It’s the smallest, it doesn’t have oil, and it benefits most from being associated with these other, larger economies. So, they’ve been pushing it."

"[Tunisia’s] President Ben Ali has been instrumental in discreetly trying to put the Algerians and Moroccans together, keeping the Libyans in as sensible a position as possible, and also keeping Mauritania part of the AMU. It’s most in Tunisia’s interest, but I think all of the AMU governments recognize ultimately the direction the world is heading; it’s hard to go it alone. You need allies, both economically and politically."

"So, I think there’s a natural future to the USNAEP. Getting the Algerians and Moroccans together because of the Western Sahara issue has been a problem and continues to be a problem. The solution is not exactly around the corner. But I do believe this problem, as well as other old animosities, can not be sustained in this new century. People are going to move on, finally."

During the North Africa Journal's visit it became clear that a major concern for the US government, and for its representation in Tunis, is the issue of human rights and democracy in Tunisia. Particularly of concern to the US, as expressed to us, are the Tunisian government’s limits on its citizens to enjoy freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly. Ben Brick, a Tunisian journalist who was arrested, had his phone service suspended and had his passport confiscated by the Tunisian authorities for "defaming" the government in an article he wrote for a French publication, protested against such treatment by engaging himself (as noted above) in a hunger strike. "As you know," remarked Ambassador Raphel, "the State Department puts out a human rights report every year on every country, and Tunisia is no exception. In my view, this exercise has evolved to a point where it really is very useful, because it helps countries see how they’re perceived internationally, in terms of a set of standards that are the same across the board. It’s not very common that a government would admit that they’ve used such a report as a tool to help them make changes internally that they couldn’t otherwise do."

Addressing how the US State Department deals with its concerns, Ambassador Raphel continued, "I would say also that it’s not just the US State Department that’s concerned about human rights, it’s a reflection on the society, US Congress, and NGO’s [non-governmental organizations] and it naturally, correctly falls to us [US State Department] to write these reports. But it’s also a concern that’s society-wide, in the US and by the Europeans. In fact, one of the aspects of the European Union-Tunisian and other association agreements, which are basically frameworks for lowering tariffs, also have human rights clauses in them. This obligates the EU partner government in question to have a dialogue on human rights with the EU. So, everybody’s in on this."

"The Tunisians on the human rights front have done much that is positive. They’ve created a safe society; they’ve invested in the social sector, in education; Tunisia has the most progressive laws in regards to women and their rights in the society as any country in the Arab world. It’s a peaceful and prosperous country."

"The biggest issue here, from a human rights point of view and from the US perspective, is the issue of liberty of expression. Tunisia has rather strenuous laws concerning what you can or can not put in print, or what you can say publicly. This has the overall effect of constraining the society in terms of freedom of expression. This is something we have a continuing dialogue about with the Tunisian government. I think they recognize that this is an issue that many of their friends are concerned about and that the issue of the trade-off between freedom of expression and law and order, the protection of society, is a difficult one, and we don’t always agree on where you should land on that spectrum."

Related to human rights is the issue of whether or not democratic institutions in Tunisia are expanding, or settling into a political environment like that of Egypt’s: a sort of one-party state with the façade of democracy superimposed onto it. Observers raise this concern given President Ben Ali’s Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD) party control over Tunisia’s parliament and municipalities and the weak state of political opposition in Tunisia. This, coupled with allegations whispered around Tunis during our visit that the ruling RCD party operatives were fiercely intent on beating an already weakened and disorganized opposition fairly or otherwise in May municipal elections, contribute to doubts whether democracy will flourish in Tunisia as a whole.

Ambassador Raphel was, nevertheless, cautiously optimistic about democracy expanding in Tunisia. "First of all, democracy is more than an election. It’s a whole series of institutions, and certainly the intentions of this government are to develop what is known now popularly as ‘civil society,’ not only government but non-government organizations as well. They openly discuss these intentions and how to most effectively carry this out. I’m optimistic that in time civil society will be more robust. I definitely see an evolution towards more of what we term democracy." "But," she continued, "it’s a more complicated concept than meets the eye in countries like Tunisia. For example, they could say: ‘We’ve had an election where for the first time in our history, and our history in terms of democracy dates only from Tunisian independence – which is a very short time compared to the US, British, or French – and for the first time we’ve had two candidates opposing the majority party. This is an important step for us.’ Whereas the US would say [in the 1999 Tunisian presidential elections] one candidate got 99.4% of the vote: that strains credulity. They would respond: ‘But we’ve established the principle in this society that people now realize that it’s quite acceptable to have two opposing candidates run in an election, and that’s a step on a path towards future elections with more candidates, stronger opposition parties with larger percentages of the vote,’ and so forth." Raphel concluded, "I think that democracy and demands for aspects of democracy increase with prosperity. Demands will increase with economic growth. That’s bound to happen here in Tunisia."

Ambassador Raphel also discussed the status of women in Tunisia and her perspective on her official role as representative for US interests in that nation while also being a woman in an Arab country. The Ambassador noted that she has been treated "extremely well" throughout her time in Tunisia. "There have been no issues at all," she stated. "The only thing I’ve not been able to do that my male colleagues could was to participate in the funeral procession for [former Tunisian] President Bourgiba. That’s Muslim practice, and people were pointing out that at Jordan’s King Hussein’s funeral procession, Queen Noor, his wife, wasn’t able to participate! It’s just Muslim practice and I’m happy to respect that."

Regarding the status of women in Tunisian society in comparison with other North African-Arab nations, Raphel cited that "it’s quite remarkable and I think Tunisia’s fortunate, because they caught onto this very early on. But they started with their personal status code, this was a Bourgiba initiative in the 1950s. So, they were fortunate to get in on the ground floor with this sort of legal structure for women. And they’ve built on it constantly. I think the one legal aspect that the Tunisian government has found difficult to deal with is the inheritance law. What has been explained to me and others, whereas there are aspects of Islamic law that aren’t clear and leave room for interpretation, that in terms of inheritance Koranic laws are very clear. So, that is one area that the government is struggling with in terms of women’s rights."

Concluding the interview, Raphel addressed the major challenges to US economic interests and the day-to-day workings of the embassy staff, citing concerns and obstacles that US investors regularly find when attempting to do business there. "If you speak to foreign investors about frustrations in operating businesses here, the thing that they would cite is the bureaucracy, which is a colonial inheritance as it is throughout Africa and Asia. And it is not always clear to investors why government decisions are made this way. There is a general issue of transparency, which we have argued to the Tunisian government that they really need to be more transparent so the processes and the system here is clearer, if they wish to attract more investors--particularly American investors, for whom the system is a little different. The French and Europeans are much more at home in this system, the Americans less so."

By the end of the conversation with Ambassador Raphel, the interview was left with one obvious question: where would she go from here? As Congressional hearings will soon begin to decide who the new American Ambassador to Tunisia will be, Raphel was somewhat reticent about discussing what her next role will be. "I expect to go back to Washington, but," she quipped, "as we are constantly reminded by Congress, nobody’s plans are clear until they’re given the green light!"