"It is shameful that those invited to support human rights in Tunisia cannot gain access to the headquarters of the human rights league"

~ Mokhtar Trifi, President, Tunisian Human Rights League

Tunisian police beat activists trying to attend a planned meeting by the country's only independent human rights body, witnesses say.

Dozens of plainclothes policemen blocked roads leading to the headquarters of the Tunisian Human Rights League and allowed no one to approach the site, the witnesses said on Saturday.

Security officials traded insults with members of the league while European and US diplomats and French lawyers, who were invited to the congress, looked on.

Witnesses said police beat and kicked league activists who tried to breach the cordon.

No arrests were reported.

The incident was the latest in a series of what rights activists say are government abuses, including beating lawyers, jailing opponents and stifling the press.....

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