Tunisian crisis: president sacks government and promises election
• President Ben Ali dismisses government amid rioting
• Early elections to take place in six months
• Tunisia ‘declares state of emergency’
• Foreign Office advises against travel to country
• Read a summary of key events
• Please turn off auto-refresh to watch videos or listen to audio
My colleague Ian Black, the Guardian’s Middle East editor, sends this video from Facebook.
Paul Owen here, taking over from Mark Tran.
A British holidaymaker who has returned from Tunisia has been telling BBC News about her experience of the protests: “It was not aimed at us. It was frightening but you felt safe in the hotels.” She said a French journalist had been shot in the leg by the police.
The BBC is reporting a 5pm-7am curfew, with no gatherings of three people or more allowed. Unofficial reports are that five people have been killed today.
The BBC’s correspondent in Tunisia says young people protesting will not be placated by promises of change in years to come: “they want change now.”
State television reports that firearms will be used if orders from the security forces are not obeyed.
Tunisia has declared a state of emergency, reports the AFP news agency.
Holiday operator Thomas Cook is evacuating around 1,800 British and Irish tourists and 2,000 Germans from Tunisia, following advice from the Foreign Office not to travel to Tunisia unless it is essential.
Events have been moving fast in Tunisia and here is a summary of key developments today:
• Police have been firing tear gas and beating up protesters outside the interior ministry in Tunis.
• 12 people have been reported dead after yesterday’s demonstrations.
• President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali has dismissed his entire government and has said there will be early elections in six months.
• A unity government is possible, foreign minister Kamel Morjane has said.
Sam, a Tunisian who does not wish to give his full name, writes a powerful piece on Comment is free on the sense of liberation people feel after years of living under the absolute rule of Ben Ali:
And for the first time, we see the opportunity to rebel, to take revenge on the “royal” family who has taken everything, to overturn the established order that has accompanied our youth. An educated youth, which is tired and ready to sacrifice all the symbols of the former autocratic Tunisia with a new revolution: the Jasmin Revolution – the true one.
If you can read French, you can follow Le Monde’s live blog of the crisis in Tunisia here.
My colleague Peter Walker has filed a news story on the situation. His story begins:
Tunisia’s president has dismissed his entire government and is calling early legislative elections, his spokesman announced today, after days of bloody clashes between security forces and protesters.
The state news agency said president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali would call fresh legislative elections in six months.
The news came after riot police fired teargas at a peaceful demonstration and gunshots were heard in central Tunis, where thousands of people had gathered to demand Ben Ali’s immediate resignation.
Here is a link to follow live postings on Facebook about the situation from people on the Tunisian side. (Thanks to yaramo in the comments.)
The announcement from Ben Ali that elections would be held in six months is a big concession since last night when he said he would leave leave office at the end of his term in 2014. But will demonstrators be satisfied with that? Today they were demanding his immediate departure.
Warning: This is dramatic footage of a protester lying on the ground after apparently being shot by snipers. The video is dated yesterday.
It is reminiscent of the video of Neda Agha-Soltan during the protests in Iran.
My colleagues on the Guardian video desk have sent this video of Tunisians protesting against Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, the president. To recap, they are calling on him to go immediately, despite his pledge not to seek re-election in 2014.
Mohamed Abdel Samad (theeproducer) tweets:
The Tunisian state news agency is also reporting that Ben Ali is calling early legislative elections in six months.
It looks like Ben Ali is trying desperately trying to keep himself from being overwhelmed by the rush of events.
Amnesty International has called on the Tunisian authorities to release or charge two men arrested, after one of them gave media interviews about the protests.
Here is Amnesty’s statement:
Hamma Hammami, spokesperson for the banned Tunisian Workers’ Communist party (Parti Communiste des Ouvriers Tunisiens, PCOT) was arrested at his home in Tunis on 12 January. Around 20 members of the presidential security unit are reported to have detained him together with his colleague, Mohamed Mzem, a lawyer, and Mounia Obaid, a friend who was later released. Hamma Hammami’s family believe he was arrested for speaking to journalists about the protests in the country.
The Tunisian state news agency says Ben Ali is dismissing government amid rioting, AP reports.
Euronews has footage of protests from overnight. Some people turned out in support of Ben Ali after his address to the nation.
Here is an AP account of the latest clashes:
Tunisian police fired rounds of tear gas at thousands of protesters in the capital Friday after some climbed atop the roof of the interior ministry, a symbol of the iron-fisted government they want to oust. The demonstrators were marching through Tunis to demand the resignation of the country’s autocratic leader, President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Many shouted “Ben Ali, out!” and “Ben Ali, assassin!” Another poster read “We won’t forget,” a reference to the rioters killed, many by police bullets.
Hundreds of police with shields and riot gear blocked the avenue Friday in front of the interior ministry, where over the years there have been reports of torture. The march was organised by Tunisia’s only legal trade union, which also went ahead with a symbolic two-hour strike. Plainclothes policemen were seen kicking unarmed protesters and beating them with batons.
Reuters is reporting that 12 people were killed in overnight clashes in Tunis and the northeastern town of Ras Jebel, citing two medical sources and a witness. Ten of the victims were killed after clashes in the capital, two sources from Charles Nicolle hospital told Reuters.
It would be surprising if Arab leaders were not afraid of the Tunisian example spreading. Reuters is reporting on protests in Jordan:
Food price protests sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East reached Jordan on Friday, when hundreds of protesters chanted slogans against Prime Minister Samir al-Rifai in the southern city of Karak. The peaceful protest was held despite hastily announced government measures to curb commodity and fuel prices. Similar demonstrations were held in three other towns and cities across the country, witnesses said. “We are protesting the policies of the government - high prices and repeated taxation that made the Jordanian people revolt,” Tawfiq al-Batoush, a former head of Karak municipality, told Reuters at the protest outside Karak’s Al Omari mosque.
Things seem to have taken a serious turn for the worse. Angelique Chrisafis is tweeting:
Gunshots are now ringing around us and in the other sidestreets around interior ministry.
An earlier tweet from her:
Running battles amid extreme violence from police. Protestors being chased onto rooftops. This is turning very, very bad.
This is very bad news for Ben Ali who must have been hoping that his concessions announced yesterday would calm things down. Instead the protesters seem to have been emboldened.
Some tweeters are lumping Ben Ali together with Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, another long-time ruler in the Arab world. “Mubarak & Ben Ali united in repression. Let the Arab street rise up in unison against the stupid Arab regime,” tweets Hisham_G.
Reuters says gunshots rang out as police fired teargas to disperse some 8,000 protesters outside the interior ministry in Tunis. The Associated Press says tear gas was fired after demonstrators climbed on to the roof of the building.
Here is an Audioboo featuring the Guardian’s Angelique Chrisafis speaking to my colleague Peter Walker from outside the interior ministry in Tunis.
Thousands of demonstrators were chanting: “Bread, water, Ben Ali out.”
A recap of what led us here. The man who set off the chain of events that has shattered Tunisia’s carefully constructed facade of stability is Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old living in the provincial town of Sidi Bouzid, who had a university degree but no work. To earn some money he took to selling fruit and vegetables in the street without a licence. When the authorities stopped him and confiscated his produce, he was so angry that he set himself on fire and died. Writing about the episode last month, the Guardian’s Brian Whitaker said Tunisia’s crisis reminded him of the fall of the Romanian dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu.
So, what we are seeing, firstly, is the failure of a system constructed by the regime over many years to prevent people from organising, communicating and agitating. Secondly, we are seeing relatively large numbers of people casting off their fear of the regime. Despite the very real risk of arrest and torture, they are refusing to be intimidated. Finally, we are seeing the breakdown of a long-standing devil’s compact where, in return for submitting to life under a dictatorship, people’s economic and welfare needs are supposedly taken care of by the state.
A notable feature of this crisis has been the deafening silence from the political class in France, Tunisia’s former colonial power and its main economic partner – a fact noted here by Le Monde. A north Africa expert I spoke to this week, Dr Claire Spencer, said France was probably working behind the scenes to put pressure on Ben Ali to make concessions. Now, perhaps sensing which way the political winds are blowing (not in his favour), the French are beginning to speak up. Reuters has this:
France on Friday urged Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to deliver on promises that it called a step in the right direction and called on him to do his utmost to restore peace after deadly riots. “We urge an end to the violence and the Tunisian president’s commitments on this front have been positively noted,” foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said of Ben Ali’s promises to bow out as leader in 2014, allow free media and order police to stop shooting protestors. “The steps the president announced go in the right direction and we hope they will be implemented.”
Spencer, from the Chatham House foreign affairs thinktank, made the point that the existence of a large educated and skilled population plus coherent demands from the unions showed that the opportunity for dialogue was there, should the government take it. The big question, though, is whether the regime can move fast enough to respond to demands for change. The evidence from today is that Ben Ali’s concessions may be too little, too late. Tunisians want him out now, and not in three years’ time.
Is this the first WikiLeaks revolution, asks Elizabeth Dickinson at Foreign Policy.
As in the recent so-called “Twitter revolutions” in Moldova and Iran, there was clearly lots wrong with Tunisia before Julian Assange ever got hold of the diplomatic cables. Rather, WikiLeaks acted as a catalyst: both a trigger and a tool for political outcry. Which is probably the best compliment one could give the whistleblower site.
Ian Black, our Middle East specialist, wrote about the WikiLeaks cable in question in December, quoting the US ambassador, Robert Godec:
“The problem is clear,” wrote ambassador Robert Godec in July 2009, in a secret dispatch released by Beirut’s al-Akhbar newspaper. “Tunisia has been ruled by the same president for 22 years. He has no successor. And, while President Ben Ali deserves credit for continuing many of the progressive policies of President Bourguiba, he and his regime have lost touch with the Tunisian people. They tolerate no advice or criticism, whether domestic or international. Increasingly, they rely on the police for control and focus on preserving power.”
It is supposed to be a beacon of calm and stability in North Africa and the Arab world, but Tunisia has been shaken by protests that have claimed the lives of at least 23 people – human rights groups put the number at over 60.
The protests were sparked off last month after an unemployed graduate set himself on fire when police tried to stop him selling vegetables without a permit. He later died.
What started out as demonstrations against high unemployment have turned into the biggest challenge for President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who has been in power for 23 years.
Thousands angered by corruption and a regime intolerent of dissent turned out in Tunis today to demand his immediate resignation, despite his pledges last night not to seek re-election in 2014. The rest of the Arab world is watching developments nervously amid fears of “contagion”.
• Here is our latest story, from Angelique Chrisafis, who is in Tunis.
• Thomas Cook is flying back some 1,800 holiday makers from the country afte the Foreign Office advised against all but esseential travel there.
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