Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001 - Tunisia

The September 11 attacks strengthened the Tunisian Government's active posture against terrorism in 2001. The only Arab nation represented on the United Nations Security Council in 2001, Tunisia supported Security Council Resolutions 1368 and 1373. These cooperative international measures matched the Tunisian Government's concrete stand against terrorism within its borders. Most Tunisians oppose Islamist movements because they do not want the violence of neighboring Algeria repeated in Tunisia.

There were no reported acts of terrorism in Tunisia in 2001, yet the Government continued to bring judicial, law-enforcement, and military resources to bear against terrorist suspects. On 29 November a military court convicted a Tunisian, extradited from Italy, on charges of training members of a terrorist cell in Italy. On the military front, the Government of Tunisia, in concert with the Government of Algeria, took steps to protect its borders from what it considered a potentially destabilizing influx of extremists. The efforts culminated in the signing in November of a military cooperation agreement with Algeria aimed at strengthening border guard units to better control terrorist movements and the illegal trafficking of arms, drugs, and contraband materials.