Tunis denies human rights violations

Tunisia on Monday strongly criticized a report by the UN anti-torture committee which accused the Tunisian authorities of practicing torture or ensuring a cover for it.

Tunisia's representative at the UN in Geneva, Kamal Murjan, said he "was bewildered and amazed" to learn about the results of the committee's works, which were broadcast on Friday.

The UN committee had expressed "concern over the gap between the law and the practice concerning human rights" and over police conduct of "torturing and humiliating acts which in several times resulted in death cases in prison."

The Tunisian representative asserted that the report does not "in its content nor spirit express the real situation of human rights in Tunisia and the continued efforts exerted by the state's authorities to encourage respect for human rights, basic rights and protect them."

He expressed regret that the committee had adopted in its report "the aligned stand taken by certain non-governmental organizations."

One of these organizations, the international federation for human rights league, had estimated the number of torture victims at several thousand between the years 1990 - 1998.