I was on my way to Tunis from my hometown of Gafsa on February 7, (about 400 kilometers away), to participate in a Correspondents workshop.
Because of the long distance, I left at 5:00 in the morning with my friend Wisam.
We were surprised to see tens of security officers deployed individually and in groups on the side of the road in the very early hours of the morning.
When we arrived to the circular junction in front of Gafsa International Airport, we saw a number of security agents and soldiers.
I was on my way to Tunis from my hometown of Gafsa on February 7, (about 400 kilometers away), to participate in a Correspondents workshop.
Because of the long distance, I left at 5:00 in the morning with my friend Wisam.
We were surprised to see tens of security officers deployed individually and in groups on the side of the road in the very early hours of the morning.
When we arrived to the circular junction in front of Gafsa International Airport, we saw a number of security agents and soldiers.
Fake security guards
I told Wisam to put on his seat belt to avoid paying traffic fines. When I saw them at the junction, I thought they were members of one of the security patrols, especially because they were looking at the cars coming from central Gafsa heading to Sfax or towards the national road, which leads to the capital.
The road we planned to take had witnessed the deadliest and bloodiest terrorist attacks, specifically in Sidi Ali Ben Aoun in central Tunisia, which led to the death of the head of the anti-terrorism team and five Tunisian National Guard officers.
My friend said jokingly: “Don’t worry about the seat belt. These are just security officers trying to find a lift. They all want to go to their offices, posts or their houses. They are not traffic police,” he said.
In that early morning, a dozens of security officers, guards, and border guards, with different ranks stood in the streets trying to find a ride.
I felt sorry for them so I stopped my car on the side of the road. I also wanted to understand more about some of the security events going on in the country. Four soldiers came towards the car. I spoke to them and they told me where they wanted to go. Two of them were heading in the same direction we were, so we let them in and they sat in the back seat.
Easy crime
Wisam looked at me, nodded his head and then he moved his hand in a way that made me understand what he wanted to say. He wanted to tell me: “Had we been terrorists, these soldiers would now be dead.”
Terrorists could have sprayed them with crippling gas and killed them.
This is in fact how Alqdkadhi, one of the alleged terrorists killed in the capital city during a government operation to find the assassins of Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi- he simply got a ride to Tunis from Mount Chaambi. Arms coming from the Libyan borders to Tunis also go along this same route using similar methods. These were my first thoughts when the soldiers joined us in our car.
One of the soldiers said: “We work in the Sbeïtla military camp in Kasserine in the center. Because we have lots of work to do, we make use of any free time to spend a warm night with our families.
Another soldier started to tell us about the tragedy of the Awlad Manaa – the terrorist attack that led to the death of four security personnel and injured four others. Meanwhile, his colleague fell asleep with no apparent signs of fear even though we were close to Ben Aoun city, a Salafist stronghold.
After nearly an hour, we arrived at the Sbeïtla junction, about 100 kilometers away from Gafsa province. The two soldiers left the car and two security men came in. They wanted a ride with us to Kairouan.
While I was busy driving the car, my friend started to talk to the new guests who politely said good morning. One of them was short and his voice was deep and rough.
Sergeant Ali, a National Guard security officer, said: “Bread is bitter my friend,” when my friend asked him how he travels every day from his house in Kasserine to his job in the Shbaika area in Kairouan province.
“Some of our colleagues in the capital city and in coastal cities can use the security department public administrations cars. But for those of us who work in rural areas, we don’t have many options. We can either use the auto stop method or wait for public transportation. The problem with the latter is that their schedule is different than ours.”
Traffic tickets no more
Many car owners, whose cars are not licensed, use these security officials to avoid traffic fines. If a car driver is accompanied by a security official he can easily get through any checkpoint without having his his car papers or his identity card checked.
Security trade unions complain about the lack of necessary work equipment, especially cars to transport officers. However, some organizations concerned with transparency and combating corruption say that there is a huge fleet of cars, beyond any acceptable limits, used by the different ministries and departments.
A week later our trip back to Gafsa started. The same scenario was waiting for us: security officials and soldiers filled the streets. On my way back, my friend Wisam accompanied me as well as another journalist heading to Sidi Bouzid.
When I reached my house, I told a friend of mine about our experience with the security officials on our way to Tunis and back. I told him that we were not stopped at any security checkpoint from the moment we left Gafsa. He was so surprised and said “How is that possible with so many terrorist attacks in the country?”
At each junction, we were expecting the checkpoints to stop us and check our ID but this didn’t happen. Security officers were busy talking to each other and hiding from the cold winter weather inside their cars.
On our way back, we changed our route to drive Aseel, our colleague, back to al-Riqab city in Sidi Bouzaid. At the Sidi Omar Bouhajla crossroad, my colleague grew angry because the soldiers at the checkpoint were not looking at us. They had their backs turned to, not paying attention to the passing cars. My friend said: “if we were terrorists, another three security personnel would have been now dead without any battle or confrontations.”
I thought back to October 23, 2013, when a security officer was killed and two were injured when an armed group opened fire on a security patrol in the area of Bourguiba’s house in the province of Bizerte.
At midnight, we arrived in Gafsa city. We travelled for almost five hours but none of the security checkpoints stopped us, although we were driving a rented car. According to interior ministry sources, many terrorists use rented cars in their attacks.
It’s a good thing my friends and I were not terrorists.
