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| Africa North | ||
| Protests rage in Tunisia | ||
| 2013-07-29 | ||
| Police fired tear gas at protesters on Sunday as opponents and supporters of Tunisia’s government clashed outside parliament after the burial of the second opposition figure slain this year. Mohamed Brahmi’s cold-blooded murder on Thursday outside his home has stoked tensions in the North African nation where the Arab Spring began. Many Tunisians blame the government for not reining in radical Islamists accused of a wave of attacks since strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was toppled in a popular uprising in 2011. Opposition figures are calling for the government to resign and the powerful General Union of Tunisian Labour (UGTT) was due to convene Monday “to decide the fate” of the country, its secretary-general Sami Tahri said. Radical Salafists close to the Al Qaeda-linked group Ansar Al Sharia, blamed by the authorities for Brahmi’s murder, denied any involvement in an online statement on Sunday.
But in a Facebook statement, the group denied responsibility for what it called “a political assassination, part of attempts to push the country toward chaos”.
Hundreds of thousands of mourners thronged the streets of Tunis on Saturday in an emotionally charged funeral to El-Jellaz cemetery where Brahmi was buried next to Belaid. Slogans vowing to “avenge” Brahmi and Belaid rose from the sea of mourners. After the burial, protesters calling for the fall of the government marched on the Constituent Assembly and clashed with riot police who fired tear-gas to disperse them, an AFP reporter said. The demonstrations later tapered off but erupted again overnight when thousands of supporters and opponents of the government led by the Ennahda party squared off outside. An AFP reporter said rival protesters camped outside parliament until dawn, separated by security barricades and anti-riot police. “Enough with Ghannouchi,” the opposition crowd chanted, referring to Ennahda chief Rached Ghannouchi. “The people want the fall of the assassins.” Ennahda supporters retorted that the parliament was a “legitimate” body and warned there was no room in Tunisia for the likes of Egyptian armed forces chief General Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. In Tunis before dawn, police fired tear gas when protesters began hurling rocks at each other. Security forces also dismantled tents that anti-government protesters had erected outside parliament. Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou on Sunday pledged to guarantee the safety of anti-government demonstrators, leftist MP Samir Taieb said. “The minister told us that he has clearly given orders for (security) agents not to use force against demonstrators and those who take part in the sit-in before the National Constituent Assembly,” he said after a meeting with Ben Jeddou. | ||
| Posted by:Steve White |