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A THIRD NIGHT of unrest has shaken Tunisia where authorities said more than 600 people have been arrested this week as anger at austerity measures boils over on the streets.
Tunisia is considered a rare success story of the Arab Spring uprisings that began in the North African country in 2011 and spread across the region, toppling autocrats.
But the authorities have failed to resolve the issues of poverty and unemployment.
Police detained 328 people on Wednesday for theft, looting, arson and blocking roads, the interior ministry said, after arresting more than 280 people over the previous two days.
The latest unrest saw a provincial police station torched, Molotov cocktails hurled at police and tear-gas fired, but ministry spokesman Khalifa Chibani said the “violence” was less intense than in previous days.
Twenty-one members of the security forces were injured, according to Chibani, who said no civilians were hurt.
AFP correspondents said most areas were calm late today, and the presidency said the main political parties, unions and business organisations will meet on Saturday to discuss the situation.
Tunisia is often seen as having had a relatively smooth transition since the 2011 uprising that toppled long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
But Tunisians have expressed frustration since the start of the year over austerity measures expected to further increase prices in a struggling economy.
The country introduced hikes in value-added tax and social contributions as part of a tough new budget.
Political scientist Olfa Lamloum called the measures “the straw that breaks the camel’s back”.
“Young people are disappointed with the revolution, especially because of the high cost of living,” she said.
‘Nostalgia spreading’
Lamloum pointed to “deepening social inequalities” highlighted by official figures showing rising poverty, unemployment and illiteracy, particularly among young people.
Conflict analysts International Crisis Group (ICG) warned the country’s political class Thursday against succumbing to “authoritarian temptation”.
While politicians had so far resisted the urge to backtrack on reforms, the ICG said “in the context of an economic slump, the nostalgia for a strong state, like the one that the former regime claimed to defend, is spreading”.
The recent unrest started with peaceful protests last week, but escalated into clashes with police overnight Monday to Tuesday.
In a third night of clashes, unrest hit several areas including the central city of Kasserine, and the northern towns of Siliana, Tebourba and Thala.
In Siliana, youths threw stones and Molotov cocktails at security forces. Police responded with tear gas, an AFP correspondent said.
Scuffles also broke out in some Tunis neighbourhoods.
On Thursday, a few dozen unemployed people protested in the central town of Sidi Bouzid, the cradle of the protests that sparked the 2011 uprisings.
In Kasserine, youths tried to block roads with burning tyres and hurled stones at police, another AFP correspondent said.
The main police station in the northern town of Thala was torched, Chibani said.
In Tebourba, where a man died during unrest overnight Monday-Tuesday, police fired tear gas at dozens of protesters, a resident said.
At a Tebourba cafe today, 41-year-old Sami shared a coffee and a cigarette with a friend.
“There’s no work and no future here,” he told AFP.
I don’t have a dinar on me.
Protest calls
One protester recalled what had happened to him.
“I wanted to express my anger about being poor, and they responded with tear gas at my head,” said Mohamed Rahmani, 21, his head in bandages because of 10 stitches.
Rail services were cancelled in some areas after a train was attacked in southern Tunis on Wednesday, local media reported.
Activists campaigning against the austerity measures have called for a huge protest tomorrow.
The opposition Popular Front party, accused by the authorities of supporting the rioters, urged the government to “find solutions for young Tunisians”.
“Peaceful demonstrations are part of the democratic equation, but damaging public property and harming citizens is illegal,” said Hamma Hammami, spokesman for the leftist party.
Protests are common in Tunisia in January, when people mark the anniversary of the 2011 revolution.
The uprising began in December 2010 after street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire and later died in a protest over unemployment and police harassment.
In Tebourba this evening, the mood was grim.
“The political class is responsible for all this,” said teacher Fatma Ben Rezayel.
The region is totally marginalised.
She deplored the fact that “unemployed young people fed up with their poor lives” were being branded criminals by the authorities.
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The difference in reporting between this and Aleppo. Do the journalists at The Journal, mostly young I presume, take their profession seriously? Because “the line” being pushed here is so biased it can only be described as Churnalism. The regurgitation of Reuters reports. What would be headline news if this were Aleppo is instead relegated to two sentences in the last paragraph. What in Mosul are called jihadists are called rebels in Aleppo. And what of the deadly aerial cylinder bombs being dropped on Mosul? Are the much more benign than rudimentary “barrel bombs” (rusty one’s according to the White Helmets) we are told are supposedly being dropped on Aleppo? Really The Journal. If you call yourselves journalists then report like journalists are supposed to.
@Veron Skvortsova: Careful now or you’ll soon have master culligan and other US state dept. parrots on to you, to explain the beneficial effects of ‘smart bombs’ as opposed to those nasty Russian ones in East Aleppo.
@Veron Skvortsova: If we want journalists to be journalists again then we’ll have to start paying them again. He who pays the piper calls the tune.
A couple of good reads
Compare the coverage of Mosul and East Aleppo and it tells you a lot about the propaganda we consume
In both countries, two large Sunni Arab urban centres – East Aleppo in Syria and Mosul in Iraq – are being besieged by pro-government forces strongly supported by foreign airpower. Yet the coverage is very different Patrick Cockburn
https://goo.gl/eK3cW4
Bombed Stupid A 2015 classic from Gary Brecher AKA The War Nerd archives
And at the moment, the Anglo media is all scared about the Russian air strikes in Syria. So they’ve started a counter-bombardment of their own, dumping tons of stupid on us helpless civilians.
https://goo.gl/J3V7UW
So Mercurial, you’re trying to say that smart bombs which can be dropped within a metre of the intended target are no improvement over crude barrels filled with ad hoc shrapnel that can land anywhere in a 100m radius of their target (meaning aiming near a school can easily mean hitting said school)?
At a glance the guy in the top picture looks badass but if you look closer he’s armed with a pair of scissors and a couple of permanent markers
Exactly the badass tools a Medic needs.. very important guys in a battle.
Another fine mess from Bush.
@David Dickenson: Did Bush invade the Philippines too?
“The captain and one crew member of a South Korean cargo ship have been abducted by suspected Abu Sayyaf fighters in the southern Philippines, according to military officials.
Naval patrols off Tawi-Tawi and nearby Sulu, where fighters take most of their kidnapping victims, have been strengthened in recent months due to a spate of abductions, Tan told the Associate Press news agency.
“We do our best to secure that area but it’s a wide body of water,” Tan said by telephone.
Abu Sayyaf, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS), has entrenched its network in recent years with vast sums of ransom money.
The group began abducting sailors in border waters between Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines early this year, taking several dozen Indonesian and Malaysian hostages.
The armed fighters also beheaded two Canadian hostages and released a Norwegian man along with a number of Indonesian and Malaysian sailors in the past.
Military sources say the group is still holding a Dutch hostage, five Malaysians, two Indonesians and four Filipinos in their jungle stronghold in the southern Philippines.”
What has the Philippines got to do with Bush? If that simpleton didn’t illegally invade Iraq none of this would have happened!
@PaulJ: One of the causes of IS is the global growth of violent jihadism since about the 1970′s. It’s a global phenomenon which has its roots in the Islamic world dating back to the militant strain which has existed within Islam since its foundation. Western imperialism contributed to its revival and popular support but it has an independent existence of its own.
IS is just one of hundreds of jihadist groups worldwide who share the same basic ideology and goals – like Abu Sayyaf. You can’t defeat an enemy that you don’t understand. The state of Iraq has more than one cause. That’s why a focus on one cause of one battle – say, Bush and Iraq – will lead to continued failure in fighting the actual war.
I like the USA. As a place to love as a holiday destination and for the amazing welcome the Americans give. Plus let’s be fair the better quality lifestyle. That being said bush needs to be before the ICC that man destroyed the middle east. All of today’s problems came from him. One would hope his name echoes through the ages with stain Hitler Mao Kim jong sung/il/Un polpot as the butchers of humanity
Look at global Islamic terrorism today compared to before the US war on terror. Their numbers have multiplied by thousands as a result of their invasions and support for terrorists which, instead of targeting the actual islamists and their source in the Arabian Gulf, instead targeted three countries which allowed all religions to practice and live in peace. Syria, Libya and Iraq were amongst the safest places for Christian’s in the Arab world and Islamic extremism was not tolerated yet these countries were targeted. Look at the state if them now, overrun by head hacking lunatics while their allies Qatar and Saudi Arabia support IS. Do you seriously think Iraq would be in the state it us today if the Yanks didn’t invade it?
Iraq is now a democratic country because of Bush who liberated the country and is also now an friend of the west especially America who is assisting the Iraqi army in taking back there city from terrorist. But don’t let the facts get in the way of your anti Bush simpleton few of the world.
@PaulJ: It’s a positive feedback loop. American public opinion notices the rise of Islamism (starting with Iran in the 70′s). So they support US interventionism (which US military industrial interests also conveniently benefit from in the short term). That leads to increased popular support for the jihadists. And so the loop continues.
But here’s the kicker – any state that openly accuses the Gulf states of funding violent jihad will be hit where it hurts – at the petrol pump. The general public would love to see the likes of the Saudis etc taken to task, in theory, but politicians are well aware that they’ll baulk pretty quickly once they realize that that would have a cost. They remember the oil crises of the 1970′s.
The oil states of the middle east have the western public by the b****s and they know it. That’s why a US presidential candidate, Hillary, can take donations from those states, which is treason, and half the American electorate will pretend they don’t know that and vote for her anyway. Irish and other western European politicians and citizens, equally, look the other way when the Saudis and Qataris buy influence here. We’ve sold out for a bag of silver.
@Stephen: That depends on what you mean by democratic. It’s now under sharia law. That is democratic in the sense that that’s what the vast majority of Iraqi muslims want. Democracy in Iraq means allowing people to live under laws that are incompatible with human rights – as determined by the European Court of Human Rights and the House of Lords.
I certainly think they should be free to be ruled as they wish, but it’s important that people understand that ‘democracy’ in Iraq does not mean quite the same thing as it means to most western Europeans.
“Opponents argue that the vote infringes constitutional guarantees of freedom of religious belief for minority groups such as Christians.”
“Ammar Toma, an MP who supported the ban, argued that it was justified because the constitution stipulates that ‘no law that contradicts the established provisions of Islam may be established.’”
@Marlowemallow: “Parliament in Iraq has voted to ban the sale, import and production of alcohol, with backers of the move arguing that its availability contradicts Islam and is unconstitutional.”
And while all this was going on the UN international Israeli-bashing Jew-haters diverted all most all of the humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian terrorists Hamas/ISIS and thelike.
Palestinian Hamas an co. got 11 times more aid than poor and conflicted deserving states.
—”According to a report last year by Global Humanitarian Assista—”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/where-does-all-that-aid-for-palestinians-go-1453669813nce, in 2013 the Palestinians received $793 million in international aid, second only to Syria. This amounts to $176 for each Palestinian, by far the highest per capita assistance in the world. Syria, where more than 250,000 people have been killed and 6.5 million refugees displaced since 2011, received only $106 per capita.—
—” though the Palestinians are more than twice as wealthy on average than these eight countries, they receive more than 11 times as much foreign aid per person. The Democratic Republic of Congo is a case in point: Its 79 million people have a per capita GDP of $700, yet they receive only $5.70 in aid per person.—”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/where-does-all-that-aid-for-palestinians-go-1453669813
“seconf” class reporting
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