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| International |
| Tunisia dumps interior minister |
| 2002-04-27 |
| Tunisia's president sacked his interior minister on Saturday following a suicide truck attack this month on a synagogue as the death toll from the blast in the south of the country climbed to 18. Diplomats said President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's sacking of Abdallah Kaabi, whom he replaced with former Social Affairs Minister Hedi M'Henni, was a bid to restore his country's image as a secure haven for tourists. The government had initially said the attack on El Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba was an accident but acknowledged this week it had been a suicide assault. Tough for him, tough for them. Tunisia's pretty moderate, especially by Arab standards, and tries not to get involved in the terrorism stuff that's so much a part of the culture in the rest of the Arab world. It would have made more sense to just 'fess up and then try and track the Bad Guys responsible down, but maybe that's just a cultural thing... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |