Tunisia: PM to Dissolve Government Following Assassination of Opposition Leader [Update]
Assassination of opposition leader Chokri belaid in Tunis
Adnen Chaouachi, Press TV, Tunis | Download Report >>
The lawyer and political activist Chokri Belaid was shot by 2 strangers in front of his house in Al Menzah Area. Thousands of angry People gathered in front of the hospital and marched in the streets of Tunis denouncing the political assassination and the climate of insecurity.
The MP and Secretary General of Aljomhouri Party Maya Jeribi joined the crowds. Jeribi said that the revolution is being highjacked by armed militias who use violence and political assassinations to impose their will on ordinary citizens and politicians.
The Popular Front Leadership warned against the counter-revolution. Othman Belhaj Amor says that the country is on the verge of collapse and that fear is dominating the Tunisian society.
The Government, the Ruling Troika and Ennahda party have released statements denouncing the crime against the leader Belaid. Yet, Protesters chanted slogans calling for the fall of the government and attacked police officers they accused of neglecting the security of Tunisians.
The Assassination of the opposition leader Chokri Belaid is the second Political assassination after the revolution. Observers say the spread of violence has just began in Tunisia. Adnen Chaouachi.
Tunisian police fire tear gas at protesters in Sidi Bouzi
People shout slogans at a protest rally outside Interior Ministry against the killing of Tunisian opposition leader, Chokri Belaid, in Tunis, on February 6, 2013.
Tunisian police have reportedly fired tear gas at protesters trying to storm police headquarters in Sidi Bouzi during clashes which broke out after opposition leader Chokri Belaid was shot dead in capital, Tunis.
On Wednesday, demonstrators attacked the police station in the central town where police used tear gas to disperse the angry protesters. Reports say that over 4000 people participated in the rally.
According to reports, a similar protest was also held in the capital outside the Interior Ministry where protesters shouted anti-government slogans.
Earlier in the day, Tunisia’s leading leftist opposition leader, Chokri Belaid, was shot dead, after leaving his home in the capital.
According to Belaid’s family, the head of the opposition Democratic Patriots party who was a harsh critic of the government was hit by two bullets.
Soon after the death, the country’s Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali denounced the act, saying “This is a criminal act, an act of terrorism not only against Belaid but against the whole of Tunisia.”
Tunisia is witnessing an increase in violence, as the country has been under a state of emergency since January 14, 2011, when Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia after days of street protests that put an end to his 23-year rule.
Riots and protests broke out in Tunisia after a 26-year-old fruit vendor, identified as Muhammad Bouazizi, set himself on fire when police confiscated his merchandise.
Ben Ali’s regime was accused of widespread corruption as his relatives controlled much of the business sector in the country.
4 Tunisian opposition parties quit assembly, call for strike
People remove fences and barbed wire during a protest rally outside Interior Ministry against the killing of Tunisian opposition leader, Chokri Belaid, in Tunis, on February 6, 2013.
Four Tunisian opposition parties have quit the country’s constituent assembly, calling for a nationwide strike following murder of the leading opposition leader Chokri Belaid.
Report say that the political parties which resigned from the assembly include the Republican Party, Call of Tunisia, Al-Massar and the Popular Front.
According to Popular Front spokesman Hamma Hammami, the oppositions also called for a general strike.
The leader of the Republican Party also issued a statement saying that “We demand the departure of the interior minister …The interior minister holds personal responsibility for the assassination of Chokri Belaid, because he knew he was threatened and he did nothing.”
This comes after Tunisia’s leading leftist opposition leader, Chokri Belaid, was shot dead, after leaving his home in the capital.
Thousands of Tunisians reportedly poured in to the streets across the North African country on Wednesday to condemn the murder of Belaid. Police also used tear gas to disperse the protesters.
According to Belaid’s family, the head of the opposition Democratic Patriots party who was a harsh critic of the government was hit by two bullets.
Soon after the death, the country’s Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali denounced the act, saying “This is a criminal act, an act of terrorism not only against Belaid but against the whole of Tunisia.”
Tunisia is witnessing an increase in violence, as the country has been under a state of emergency since January 14, 2011, when Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia after days of street protests that put an end to his 23-year rule.
Riots and protests broke out in Tunisia after a 26-year-old fruit vendor, identified as Muhammad Bouazizi, set himself on fire when police confiscated his merchandise.
Ben Ali’s regime was accused of widespread corruption as his relatives controlled much of the business sector in the country.
PM to Dissolve Government Following Assassination of Opposition Leader
A protester holds a poster as others hold candles during a demonstration outside the Tunisian Embassy in Paris on February 6, 2013, against the killing of prominent Tunisian opposition leader Shokri Belaid.
Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali says he will dissolve the government after protests were held in the country over the assassination of leading opposition leader Shokri Belaid.
In a televised address on Wednesday, Jebali said that he “decided to form a government of competent nationals without political affiliation.”
He added that his new government will organize the elections “as soon as possible.”
“(Belaid’s) assassination has quickened my decision, for which I assume full responsibility before God and before our people,” he said.
Before Jebali’s reshuffle announcement, four Tunisian opposition parties quit the country’s Constituent Assembly, calling for a nationwide strike following the murder of the leading opposition leader.
This came after Belaid was shot dead after leaving his home in the capital earlier in the day.
Thousands of Tunisians also took to the streets across the North African country on Wednesday to condemn the murder of Belaid. Police also used tear gas to disperse the protesters.
A Tunisian policeman was killed in clashes between the security forces and protesters, the Interior Ministry said.
Soon after the death, Jebali condemned the assassination as “a criminal act, an act of terrorism not only against Belaid but against the whole of Tunisia.”
In January 2011, the country’s Western-backed dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, fled the Tunisia to Saudi Arabia, after weeks of bloody protests over corruption, unemployment, and high food prices.
Tunisia’s first freely elected government was sworn in December 2011, a year after the start of a popular uprising that ended the 23-year authoritarian rule of Ben Ali.
Chokri Belaid, 1964-2013: Fierce Opponent of Tunisia’s Islamists
The assassination of Tunisia’s Chokri Belaid embodies an assault on a key figure of an opposition coalition that presents itself as a political alternative to the ruling Islamist Ennahda party
Chokri Belaid, who was gunned down outside his home on Wednesday, was a fierce opponent of Tunisia’s ruling Islamists and a pan-Arab, left-wing activist propelled to the front of the political scene after the revolution.
The head of the Party of Democratic Patriots (PPD), which was legalised in March 2011, did not pull any punches in attacking Ennahda, which heads the coalition government, and its veteran leader Rached Ghannouchi.
On the eve of his death, he denounced what he called “attempts to dismantle the state and the creation of militias to terrorise citizens and drag the country into a spiral of violence”.
With his thick black moustache and striking smile, Belaid, 48, became a familiar face in the media and a key figure in the Popular Front alliance which he helped to form in October with other Arab nationalist and leftist opposition groups.
The influence of the Popular Front, which presents itself as an alternative to the government and to the centre-right opposition led by former premier Beji Caid Essebsi, is hard to gauge in the absence of reliable polls.
Belaid’s party holds only one seat in the National Constituent Assembly.
Born on November 26, 1964 in the Tunis suburb of Djebel Jelloud, Belaid worked as a human rights lawyer and acted for the defence in political trials during the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was ousted in the 2011 uprising.
He served time in jail himself under Ben Ali and his predecessor Habib Bourguiba.
Belaid was also a part of former Iraq leader Saddam Hussein’s defence team, in addition to actively being involved in opposing the normalisation of ties with Israel.
The opposition leader, whose movement sought recruits in universities, where it also confronted the rising influence of Islamists, served on a national body set up to promote political reform and democratic transition in the run-up to the first free elections after the revolution.
With a populist streak, he retained the working class accent of northwestern Tunisia, where his family was from.
When social unrest exploded into violence in the town of Siliana late last year, Belaid was among those leading the anti-government protests, drawing the criticism of Interior Minister Ali Larayedh, who accused him of stirring up trouble.
Just last Saturday, Belaid had accused Ennahda “mercenaries” of attacking a gathering of his supporters.
He was shot at close range as he was leaving his house early on Wednesday by a man wearing a traditional long garment with a pointed hood, according to Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who called the murder an “act of terrorism” against Tunisia.
A furious crowd gathered outside the hospital where Belaida’s body was taken, squarely blaming the Ennahda party, to which Jebali belongs, for his death and calling for a new revolution.
Police station trashed in Tunisia clashes as ruling Islamists reject dissolving government
Tunisian police clashed with protesters for the second day after the murder of an opposition leader, marking the worst crisis since the country’s Arab Spring revolt. It comes as ruling Islamists rebuffed the PM’s decision to dissolve the cabinet.
Witnesses say hundreds of protesters raided a police station in Tunis on Thursday, throwing furniture and various equipment into the streets.
Police used tear gas to disperse the stone-hurling demonstrators rallying outside the Interior Ministry headquarters in the capital. Around 300 protesters marched down the avenue chanting, “The people want the fall of the regime.”
Clashes also continued in other cities across the country. Earlier on Thursday afternoon in the central town of Gafsa, anti-Islamist protesters threw petrol bombs at police, who returned fire with tear gas.
Massive unrest in the country that was the cradle of the Arab Spring movement began on Wednesday after the assassination of Chokri Belaid, a prominent secularist leftist leader and staunch critic of hardline Islamists as well as the ruling moderate-Islamist Ennahda party. Belaid had criticized the government for turning a blind eye to criminal acts by the Salafists, and was the regular recipient of death threats.
After Belaid was shot dead while leaving his house, thousands of protesters took to the streets nationwide hurling rocks, fighting police and setting fire to offices of the Ennahda party, which they blamed for the assassination. One policeman was killed in the clashes.
Following the assassination, the Popular Front to which Belaid’s Marxist Democratic Patriots’ Movement belonged, as well as four other opposition groups, said they were pulling out of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA), which was elected in October 2011.
So far no party took responsibility for the killing, but the Ennahda has been squarely accused by Belaid’s family of orchestrating the killing – charges it denies.
”I tell the whole world that my son died as a martyr. He lived as a brave man that served Tunisia. He didn’t serve anyone other than Tunisia and its society. He never worked for a [state] function. It is the Ennahda and no one else that killed him,” Chokri Belaid’s father Salah told AP.
Tunisian protestors chant slogans behind barbed wire as security forces keep watch outside the Interior Ministry in Tunis, on February 7, 2013 during a demonstration against the killing of opposition figure and human rights lawyer Chokri Belaid (AFP Photo / Khalil)
In the wake of the mounting violence, Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said he would dissolve the government and create a technocrat cabinet that would remain in place until a national election. But the move was strongly rejected by Ennahda, which Jebali himself heads.
“The Ennahda movement does not agree with the stance that the head of the government Hamadi Jebali took last night,” said Abdelhamid Jelassi, the party’s vice president. “We see that the country is still in need of a government that incorporates political and coalition personalities that assume the role with a political base.”
The country is facing a general strike on Friday after the UGTT, an influential trade union federation, called for the move in protest against the assassination. Meanwhile lawyers, judges and some teachers had already started a three day protest strike Wednesday. The police and army have been put on alert to prevent any outbreaks of violence and to “deal with any troublemakers,” presidential spokesman Adnan Mancer said late on Thursday.
At the core of the growing divisions in Tunisia is a conflict between newly-empowered moderate Islamists, hardliners and secularists. The opposition has been infuriated with numerous attacks carried out by radical Salafists against movie theaters and art exhibits, as well as activists, lawyers and liberal intellectuals – everything they consider opposed to their version of Islam.
Political analyst Danny Makki told RT that the events in Tunisia show that the Arab Spring has not necessarily been a force for good.
“This could act as a catalyst for more violence and anarchy in Tunisia. Any small political change can create contempt and hatred in society, and this essentially conveyed in Tunisia now,” he said.
Tunisian protestors clash with security forces outside the Interior Ministry in Tunis, on February 7, 2013 following a demonstration against the killing of opposition figure and human rights lawyer Chokri Belaid (AFP Photo / Khalil)
Tear gas smoke fired by Tunisian police to disperse demonstrators is seen during a rally outside the Interior Ministry in Tunis, on February 7, 2013 (AFP Photo / Khalil)
Opposition Leader’s Funeral Brings Day of Reckoning for Tunisia
By Tarek Amara
TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia’s political crisis looked likely to deepen on Friday with strikes and protests planned around the funeral of assassinated opposition politician Chokri Belaid.
Belaid’s killing on Wednesday has brought thousands of people onto the streets of the capital Tunis and other cities in violence-marred protests.
Unions have called a general strike for Friday, setting the stage for further confrontation two years on from the pro-democracy revolution that inspired the Arab Spring.
Tunisia is riven by tensions between the dominant Islamists and their secular opponents, and by disillusionment over the lack of social progress since the overthrow of dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011.
In response to Belaid’s assassination, Prime Minister Hamdi Jebali, an Islamist, said on Wednesday he would dissolve the government, name a non-partisan cabinet of technocrats and hold early elections. But his partners opposed the move and it is yet to be approved by parliament.
No one has claimed responsibility for the killing of Belaid, a lawyer and secular political figure, who was shot by a gunman as he left home for work on Wednesday.
But a crowd set fire to the headquarters of Ennahda, the Islamist party of Prime Minister Jebali, who leads a coalition with two junior secularist parties. Ennahda denies any involvement.
While Belaid had only a modest political following, his criticism of Ennahda policies spoke for many Tunisians who fear religious radicals are bent on snuffing out freedoms won in the first of the revolts that rippled through the Arab world.
“Criminals assassinated Chokri’s body, but will not assassinate Chokri’s struggle,” his widow Besma said on Thursday.
“My sadness ended when I saw thousands flocking to the streets…at that moment I knew that the country is fine and men and women in my country are defending democracy, freedom and life.”
All three ruling parties and sections of the opposition rebuffed Jebali’s plan to create a small, technocrat government to take over day-to-day matters until elections could be held, demanding they be consulted before any such move.
“In the likely event that there is no agreement, civil unrest will increase, reaching a level that cannot be contained by the police,” said Firas Abi Ali of the London-based Exclusive Analysis think-tank.
“If unrest continued for more than two weeks, the army would probably reluctantly step in and back a technocrat government, as well as fresh elections for a new Constituent Assembly.”
The economic effect of political uncertainty and street unrest could be serious in a country which has yet to draft a post-revolutionary constitution and which relies heavily on the tourist trade.
The cost of insuring Tunisian government bonds against default rose to its highest level in more than four years on Thursday and ratings agency Fitch said it could further downgrade Tunisia if political instability continues or worsens.
