vendredi 18 mars 2011
mardi 8 mars 2011
Political ambiguity breeds violence
| Political ambiguity breeds violence | ||||||
As politicians fight over what shape the new Tunisia might take, suspicious acts of violence wreak havoc. Yasmine Ryan Last Modified: 07 Mar 2011 16:50 GMT | ||||||
The mass euphoria that followed the toppling of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has quickly yielded to the musty fog of uncertainty that has descended upon Tunisia's political landscape. Tunisians are split into two general camps: the 'revolutionaries' who refuse to rest until every last relic of the old regime has been stripped away, and the 'reformers' who fear the country is edging toward political and economic crisis. "There's a big discussion underway between those that are concerned that genuine revolution be realized, and those that are really concerned that the power vacuum will lead to chaos," says Michael Willis, a lecturer at Oxford University's School of Oriental Studies. The 'revolutionary' group includes an informal alliance of Islamists, trade unionist and far-left groups, while the 'reformers' include centre-left opposition parties, conservatives, former allies of Ben Ali and independents who have stepped into the political sphere for the first time. Lurking on the shadows, both groups say, are Ben Ali loyalists poised to profit from any ambiguity to re-establish their political might. Each side accuses the other of being infiltrated by former members of the recently disbanded RCD (Constitutional Democratic Rally) party. While there are clearly manipulations going on, Willis says, both parties have legitimate concerns. "Every time any structure is put in place, there are calls for it to be removed and overthrown. Yet there are concerns that rolling chaos and rolling demands will just gut the system," he says. The interim government that was to chaperon the country to its first genuinely democratic elections has seen its authority eroded in a matter of weeks by continuing economic and social contestation by the revolutionary camp, forcing members of the government to quit. Mohamed Ghannouchi stood down from his role as prime minister on Sunday after protests in the capital calling for his resignation turned violent and five people were killed. Ghannouchi had been prime minister under Ben Ali’s rule. His resignation was rapidly followed by five other members of the government, including the last remaining members of the former president’s Constitutional Democratic Rally party (RCD). http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/03/201131134458332348.html Particularly foreboding for the prospects of Tunisia’s democratic transition, however, was the resignation of two leading representatives of Tunisia’s centre-left opposition. Najib Chebbi, who resigned on Tuesday from the role of regional development minister, is the founder of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), while Ahmed Ibrahim, head of the Ettajdid Movement, quit his post as higher education minister. Both politicians had been prominent critics of Ben Ali and were untainted by links to the former regime. Ahmed Bouazzi, a member of the executive committee of the PDP, told Al Jazeera that Chebbi had resigned because he was concerned about the political uncertainty and the government's ceding of power to a "strange alliance" of union activists, Islamist parties including Rachid Ghannouchi’s http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/2011233464273624.html pro-democracy al-Nahda movement and the smaller, more conservative Tahir party, and a range of Marxist and Leftist groups. "Since the government is too weak, they give the opposition, especially the trade union, everything that they demand," Bouazzi says. He added that this was especially ironic given that the national union (UGTT) leadership had worked closely with Ben Ali, and only became involved in the protest movement on the eve of his fall from power. One of the concessions won by the union movement is that all members of the interim government would be barred from running as candidates in future elections – a factor which forced Chebbi and Ibrahim to resign, Bouazzi says. The country’s centre-left parties fear that the combination of uncertainty over the upcoming elections and the insecurity caused by the ongoing protests is going to lead to a scenario where the military could take power. “Since these people are using violence in the street, maybe this will pave the way for the army,” he said. A town pillaged The state of limbo reaches far beyond the capital. Kasserine is the town that sacrificed the most lives during the uprising. The massacres that happened in this central Tunisian town played a crucial role in pushing the middle classes of Tunis out onto the streets. In the weeks after Ben Ali fell, the people of Kasserine were avidly hopeful that the sacrifices they had made for the revolution would lead to concrete changes. That after decades of neglect by the state and tyrannical bullying by its petty agents, their thirst for jobs, decent employment conditions, government investment and freedom would finally be quenched. [PHOTO SLIDESHOW TO GO HERE] On Friday afternoon, those aspirations were dealt a titanic blow. The town was engulfed by three days of burning and looting by gangs of youths, which began on Friday. “Many people threw stones and used knives to terrorise the people of Kasserine,” Basma Askri, a local lawyer, said. She said nothing comparable to the recent chaos had happened during the uprising. Most of the town’s public buildings, many commercial properties and some homes were destroyed. No lives were lost, but the physical damage to the town far exceeded anything that had occurred during the uprising. They hit the central police station and the national guard first, and moved on to the government finance office, the regional customs office and the council for central and western development. Computers and office equipment were stolen from the Tunisian Solidarity Bank. Schools were also targeted, although the community managed to protect some buildings. Some shopkeepers were wounded by looters armed with knives, while others used cement to seal their businesses off. [USE PHOTO OF SHOP WITH GRAFFETI : ‘I swear by God that it’s empty’] Mohamed-Salah Omri, a lecturer at Oxford’s Faculty of Oriental Studies originally from Kasserine, says that no more than a couple of hundred people had participated in the violence over the weekend, which the vaste majority of the town strongly opposed. The rampage caught the town just when morale had been high. It caught the locals by surprise, he says. “There was a certain consensus that the town was looking up,” he explains. “The security situation was good and people dropped their guard.” Many of the local figures that had taken a defacto leadership role since the uprising began were in Tunis last Friday for the sit-in at the Casbah, he notes, so there was a vacuum when the violence began. Deliberate strategy? The unrest began during the midday prayer on Friday in the poor neighbourhood of Ezzouhour, where protesters had been slain by snipers in mid-January. A local imam brought politics into his sermon, several sources who had been present told Al Jazeera. [NAME?] A project to construct a research hospital in the Kasserine was being moved to Gafsa, the imam misleadingly told worshippers, and the wealthy seaside town of Monastir would be receiving sizable government investments. In a town starved of any kind of government attention, this was a sure way to rouse resentment. “He said that to make people angry. It’s not his role to talk politics; he said some very disturbing things,” a local business owner, speaking anonymously for his own protection, said. Though the imam had been a post-Ben Ali appointee, he is reputed to be close to local members of the RCD. “These people want to create regional rivalries. They don’t want Tunisia to be free and democratic,” the source said. Sources said that there had been several people on the streets spreading similar rumours about projects going to other towns to the groups of youths who are habitually congregate on the town’s streets. With so much social and political uncertainty, in addition to the endemic unemployment that had been one of the core reasons for the spread of the uprising in December, the man said it is easy to incite the town’s restless youth to protest. “A few rumours are enough to start a protest right now,” another young man said. “It was well-organised.” The interior ministry also said that the protest was provoked by deliberate misinformation and urged Tunisians “not to fall for such warped rumours, which aim at destabilising the country and fermenting trouble and disorder,” in a statement issued on Friday. Anger at army In Kasserine and the rest of the country, the army has been hugely popular after its commander-in-chief, Rachid Ammar, reportedly refused to fire on protesters. Given acute public mistrust in the police, who are perceived as reminders of Ben Ali’s repression, the army has played an important role in keeping the peace. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/world/africa/25tunis.html?_r=1 Yet after Friday, the people of Kasserine have begun questioning the army for the first time. Several sources in Kasserine affirmed that the violence on Friday happened under the watch of the military, and that the soldiers failed in their duty to protect important public buildings. That most police fled ahead of the protesters at the main police station does not surprise locals. “Police sit around having coffee, they do nothing,” one man said. Yet there were soldiers present when many of the buildings were attacked, but they failed to intervene, several sources said. “The crowd headed straight for the police station and the army didn’t stop them,” another man said. “There are still limits on their intervention.” Sources said locals had asked the military to leave for the first time on Saturday, because of their perceived failure to protect the town. A video sent by one source appears to confirm the incident. It shows locals confronting soldiers: [EMBED] “Yesterday they burgled the bank and where were you? “When they stole the weapons [from the police station], where were you? "Coward, collaborator, Trabelsi [reference to Leila Ben Ali's family]." Neji Zairi, a spokesperson for the interior ministry, said that the police had done their best in difficult circumstances. "What can they do? There were thousands of people who were trying to invade the police building. You can't always resort immediately to bullets and risk killing people," he said. Omri says that while the people of Kasserine do not generally suspect the army of being complicit in the unrest, the problem lies in the lack of clarification over the army's role in domestic affairs – at both the local and national level. There has been no official statement made by the defence ministry. The spokesperson for the defence ministry was unavailable to discuss the matter when contacted by Al Jazeera. Based on the perception that the army has, in many ways, taken over the police’s role of law enforcement, people in Kasserine are questioning why the army played such a “passive” role, Omri explains. "I don't think people know what the army's rules of engagement are," he says. "There has been nothing has been in the public domain." Reaching out On Saturday, the army sent reinforcements to the town, and worked with police to arrest people suspected to have instigated or carried out the rioting. Helicpoters surveyed the streets from above, while patrols of soldiers and tanks monitored things on the ground. "It's a complete turnaround in the state of the soldiers," one man says. Several local businessmen, a lawyer, a school principal and politicians were sent to Tunis for questioning, the interior ministry confirms. The imam is at large but is wanted for questioning. "These are important people, all have links to the RCD," Omri says. A car filled with thousands of dinar in cash fuelled suspicions that youths were to be paid for having participated in the looting. "Police agents have arrested the people who were paying the individuals who committed the violence and criminal acts," Neji Zairi says. Security forces also arrested youth identified as having participated in the rampage from videos that have been posted to Facebook, sources say. In an attempt to rebuild the trust that had been lost during the rampage, a military commander held an exceptional meeting with locals on Monday to better explain the army’s mandate, Al Jazeera learned. The commander called on Kasserine's civil society to help calm the tensions, and said the military had prevented a group from breaking into the local prison on Sunday, as well as the attempted sabotage of a nearby factory. Implications The campaign of destruction in Kasserine is one of many suspicious cases that are contributing to wider fears that former regime heavyweights still have the capacity to wreak havoc, whether at the local or the national level. The month of February was marked by a series of strange incidents that served to remind Tunisians that that the fruits of their uprising are far from ripe. In his resignation speech, Ghannouchi warned Tunisia's "silent majority" that they must remain vigilant against the attempts to undermine their “revolution”. "A plot is being instigated against the Tunisian peoples' revolution," Ghannouchi cautioned. "There is a minority who want to make the revolution fail and a majority who are apathetic." In his parting word to the nation, he called on Tunisia's silent majority to counter those conspiring against their revolution. More than 100 people implicated in looting, terrorism and other acts of violence – who, he alleges, had "infiltrated" the otherwise peaceful protest - have been arrested. Investigations are underway to establish the details of what appears to have been an orchestrated operation. "Who is behind the operation on avenue Habib Bourguiba [during the protest on Friday] and all this cycle of violence?" he asked. Witnesses from Kasserine say that records in the public buildings were completely destroyed. "These people went straight to the public buildings, where there were very important papers which could have been used as proof against them," a small business owner says. For Omri, what happened in Kasserine was part of a pattern that has emerged in post-uprising Tunisia of mob psychology being manipulated to achieve political ends. He said the trend is unlikely to be the work of a single group, but rather individuals operating at the local level. "For some it's just an opportunity to loot and break, for others it's a cover for something else. And that's been happening across Tunisia," he says. Everyone in Kasserine interviewed by Al Jazeera was opposed to the spate of attacks that took place last weekend. "The people of Kasserine, we want things to be calm, we want investment and progress," one man says, a comment that appears to reflect the general viewpoint. This "silent majority" achieved the spectacular feat of having its voice heard during uprising, but is fast losing its voice in the noise of post-Ben Ali Tunisia. LEGITIMACY WALLED UP IN THEIR HOMES Tunisia vibrated with palpable euphoria in the days after mass protests forced Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to decamp to Saudia Arabia.A few short weeks on, utopic expectations of a sweeping break with the old regime are colliding with concerns that the country is edging towards political and economic crisis. "There's a big discussion underway between those that are concerned that genuine revolution be realised, and those that are really concerned that the power vacuum will lead to chaos," says Michael Willis, a lecturer at Oxford University's School of Oriental Studies. Tunisians are split into two general camps: what might be called the 'idealists,' who refuse to rest until every last relic of the old regime has been stripped away, and the 'realists'' who fear that, however imperfect and in need of reform the existing institutions may be, instability and lack of governance could open the way for either the military or the barely-ousted regime to take power. The idealist group includes a tactical alliance of Islamists, trade unionist and far-left groups, while the reformers include centre-left opposition parties, conservatives, former allies of Ben Ali and independents who have stepped into the political sphere for the first time. Until the deadlock between the two sides is bridged, the country is floating in a state of limbo. Lurking in the shadows, both groups are quick to say, are Ben Ali loyalists poised to profit from any ambiguity to re-establish their political might. Each side accuses the other of being infiltrated by former members of the recently disbanded RCD (Constitutional Democratic Rally) party. While there are clearly manipulations going on, Willis says, both sides have legitimate concerns. "Every time any structure is put in place, there are calls for it to be removed and overthrown. Yet there are concerns that rolling chaos and rolling demands will just gut the system," he says. Mohamed Ghannouchi stood down from his role as interim prime minister last Sunday, after protests in the capital calling for his resignation turned violent and five people were killed. Ghannouchi had been prime minister under Ben Ali since 1999. Particularly foreboding for the prospects of Tunisia’s democratic transition was the resignation of two leading representatives of Tunisia’s centre-left opposition; Najib Chebbi, the founder of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), and Ahmed Ibrahim, the head of the Ettajdid Movement. Both politicians had been prominent critics of Ben Ali and were untainted by links to the former regime.
"Since the government is too weak, they give the opposition, especially the trade union, everything that they demand," Bouazzi says. He adds that this was especially ironic given that the national union (UGTT) leadership had worked closely with Ben Ali - including Abdessalem Jrad, the UGTT's secretary-general - and only became involved in the protest movement on the eve of his fall from power. Many things may have changed in the new era, but there are reminders of the past. People who tried to attend a protest calling for Jrad's resignation were intimidated by supporters of the union on Saturday. "In the post-Ben Ali Tunisia, repression continues," writes Selim Slimi, a journalist who was severely beaten outside the union headquarters by its members as he tried to report on the protest. The country’s centre-left parties fear that the combination of uncertainty over the upcoming elections and the insecurity caused by the ongoing protests is going to lead to a scenario where the military could take power. "Since these people are using violence in the street, maybe this will pave the way for the army," Bouazzi says. Beji Caid Essebsi, who came out of retirement to take the role of interim prime minister after Ghannouchi's resignation, has the advantage of having no direct links to the Ben Ali regime. While the 87-year-old who served as a minister in President Habib Bourguiba's government may not be fresh blood, Essebsi is viewed as a more palatable figure to oversee the country's democratic transition, and promised to form a new interim government within days. The government was announced on Monday. A town pillaged The malaise reaches far beyond the capital, penetrating into the impoverished centre-west of the country where the protest movement began.
Hopes that thirst for jobs, decent employment conditions, government investment and freedom would finally be quenched have been overtaken by a state of fear, after the town was engulfed by three days of burning and looting by gangs of youths. Mohamed-Salah Omri, a lecturer at Oxford’s Faculty of Oriental Studies who is originally from Kasserine, says that no more than a couple of hundred people had participated in the violence over the weekend and that the vast majority of the town strongly opposed it. The rampage caught the town just when morale had been high, he says. "There was a certain consensus that the town was looking up," he explains. "The security situation was good and people dropped their guard." The rioters hit the central police station and the national guard first, and moved on to the government finance office, the regional customs office and the council for central and western development. Schools, banks and small businesses were looted. "They threw stones and used knives to terrorise the people of Kasserine," says Basma Askri, a local lawyer, adding that the recent wave of destruction was far worse than anything that happened during the uprising. Most of the town's public buildings, many commercial properties and some homes were destroyed, although no lives were lost. More than a week later, many of the shops are still closed. A 'deliberate strategy' Sources in the town say the unrest was sparked by false rumours that a project to construct a research hospital in Kasserine was being moved to Gafsa and that the wealthy seaside town of Monastir would be receiving sizable government investments. In a town long starved of government attention this roused resentment. Several people who attended a sermon in a poor neighbourhood of Ezzouhour, where protesters had been killed by snipers in mid-January, say an imam there had helped spread the rumour. "He said that to make people angry. It's not his role to talk politics; he said some very disturbing things," a local business owner, speaking anonymously for his own protection, says. "These people [spreading the rumours] want to create regional rivalries. They don't want Tunisia to be free and democratic." With so much social and political uncertainty, in addition to the endemic unemployment that was one of the issues behind the December uprising, another young man explained that it is easy to incite the town's restless youth. "A few rumours are enough to start a protest right now," he says, adding that "it was well-organised." The interior ministry also says that the protest was provoked by deliberate misinformation and urged Tunisians "not to fall for such warped rumours, which aim at destabilising the country and fermenting trouble and disorder," in a statement. Witnesses from Kasserine say that records in the public buildings were completely destroyed in acts, unlike the wider looting, that seemed planned and calculated. "These people went straight to the public buildings, where there were very important papers which could have been used as proof against them," the business owner says. Anger at the army One indication of how much the people of Kasserine have been shaken by the latest unrest is the effect it has had on their relationship with the army. Hugely popular since its commander-in-chief, Rachid Ammar, reportedly refused Ben Ali's demand to fire on protesters during the unrest, the army had won the respect of the town where the worst massacres occured. But several people in Kasserine say the events of last week happened under the watch of the military and that soldiers stood passively as buildings were burned and robbed. "The crowd headed straight for the police station and the army didn’t stop them," one man says. "There are still limits on their intervention." Because of their perceived failure to protect the town, angry locals asked the military to leave for the first time last Saturday, sources say.
"Yesterday they burgled the bank and where were you? "When they stole the weapons [from the police station], where were you? "Coward, collaborator, Trabelsi [reference to Leila Ben Ali's family]." Neither has the incident improved the locals' low opinion of the police. Neji Zairi, a spokesperson for the interior ministry, says that the police had done their best in difficult circumstances and had little choice but to flee as the protesters approached. "What can they do? There were thousands of people who were trying to invade the police building. You can't always resort immediately to bullets and risk killing people," he says. Omri says that while the people of Kasserine do not generally suspect the army of being complicit in the unrest, the problem lies in the lack of clarification over the army's role in domestic affairs. Police have lost some of their authority to the army, he notes, and may have expected the soldiers to take over in dealing with the youths. "I don't think people know what the army's rules of engagement are," he says. The spokesperson for the defence ministry was unavailable to discuss the matter when contacted by Al Jazeera. But the ministry did issue a statement on Tuesday which, though it did not refer directly to Kasserine, appeared to be a response to criticisms, denouncing what it termed a campaign to discredit the army, "which has valiantly resisted to protect the revolution since its beginning, to defend the state institutions, protect individuals, preserve public and private property against acts of vandalism and looting and to safeguard the republican regime". Reaching out The army quickly sent heavy reinforcements to the town, and worked with police to arrest people suspected to have instigated or carried out the rioting. Helicpoters surveyed the streets from above, while patrols of soldiers and tanks monitored things on the ground, with the assistance of a small number of police. "There's been a complete turnaround in the attitude of the soldiers," one man says. The interior ministry confirm several local businessmen, a lawyer, a school principal and former members of the local government were sent to Tunis for questioning. The imam is at large but is wanted for questioning.
A car filled with thousands of dinar in cash fuelled suspicions that youths were to be paid for having participated in the looting. "Police agents have arrested the people who were paying the individuals who committed the violence and criminal acts," Neji Zairi says. In an attempt to rebuild the trust that had been lost during the rampage, a military commander held an exceptional meeting with locals on Monday to better explain the army's mandate, Al Jazeera learned. The commander called on Kasserine's civil society to help calm the tensions, and said the military had prevented a group from breaking into the local prison on Sunday, as well as the attempted sabotage of a nearby factory. Implications The campaign of destruction in Kasserine is one of many suspicious cases that are contributing to wider fears that former regime heavyweights still have the capacity to wreak havoc, especially since local and national authorities are weakened by the battle for legitimacy. The month of February was marked by a series of strange incidents that served to remind Tunisians that that the fruits of their uprising are far from ripe. The interior ministry is investigating alleged cases of instigating violence in the capital, Sidi Bouzid and El Kef, as well as last week's incident in Kasserine. In his resignation speech, Ghannouchi warned Tunisia's "silent majority" that they must remain vigilant against the attempts to undermine their “revolution”. "A plot is being instigated against the Tunisian peoples' revolution," Ghannouchi cautioned, on his final night as prime minister. "There is a minority who want to make the revolution fail and a majority who are apathetic." For Omri, what happened in Kasserine was part of a pattern that has emerged in post-uprising Tunisia of mob psychology being manipulated to achieve political ends. He says the trend is unlikely to be the work of a single group, but rather individuals operating at the local level. "For some it's just an opportunity to loot and break, for others it's a cover for something else. And that's been happening across Tunisia," he says. | ||||||
Source: Al Jazeera |
vendredi 25 février 2011
Posons ainsi la fameuse question: A qui le tour ?
Il était une fois une Tunisie
A pris chemin vers l'Egypte
Et c'est en Libye en ce moment
Posons ainsi la fameuse question: A qui le tour ?
Posons ainsi la fameuse question: A qui le tour ?
vendredi 18 février 2011
Kasserine: Dossier Images
Avant:
Apres:
Des soldats américains au col de Kasserine:
Avant:(THE RAILROAD STATION AT KASSERINE VILLAGE)
Apres:( c'est à thalepte mais c pareil à Kasserine)
Tunisia, Zarzis port, Illegitimate immigration
Feb.11,2011.Zarzis
Feb.10,2011.The army watching suspicious boat
Feb.10,2011.Questioning of the guys after being caught.
Feb.11,2011.One boat stopped (end of the quay)
Result of illegitimate immigration
Livre inédit: Notre ami Ben Ali
Description:Zine Ben Ali est un cas. Au pouvoir depuis 1987, le président tunisien a peu à peu transformé la paisible Tunisie en une immense caserne. La lutte contre les islamistes a justifié un impressionnant maillage policier de la population. Les opposants, même les moins virulents, sont systématiquement persécutés, souvent torturés, avant d'être jugés dans des parodies de procès. Comment la France tolère-t-elle à deux heures d'avion un tel régime ? Pourquoi la diplomatie, la plupart des médias et les milieux d'affaires cautionnent-ils par leur silence un régime aussi autoritaire ? Ce livre explosif rompt ce silence. Grâce à leur excellente connaissance du dossier, et des enquêtes inédites sur ses aspects les plus sombres, Nicolas Beau et Jean-Pierre Tuquoi révèlent la face cachée du " miracle tunisien " (pour reprendre les termes de Jacques Chirac). Ils retracent la carrière étonnante du président Ben Ali (" élu " en 1989 et 1994 avec 99 % des voix), décortiquent les rouages de son système répressif et les violations massives des droits de l'homme, révèlent les dérives mafieuses du régime et des " sept familles " qu'il a enrichies. Et surtout, ils expliquent pourquoi " notre ami Ben Ali " bénéficie en France d'une aussi extraordinaire indulgence : l'hospitalité généreusement accordée à certains responsables politiques ou journalistes français, la collaboration étroite entre services de renseignement pour la chasse aux opposants islamistes, les intérêts économiques croisés. Ce livre passionnera tous les vrais amis de ce pays - ils sont nombreux en France - qui ne souhaitent pas rester aveugles.
Aperçu (Version Française):
Lien de téléchargement:
Version arabe:
http://www.filestube.com/d7573dad8c37675e03e9,g/Notre-ami-Ben-Ali-Lenvers-du-miracle-tunisien.htmlhttp://rapidshare.com/files/290213632/Notre_ami_Ben_Ali__Lenvers_du_miracle_tunisien.pdfjeudi 17 février 2011
The massacre behind the revolution
  |
It was the deliberate slaying of protesters in Tunisia that turned a regional uprising into a nationwide revolution. Yasmine Ryan Last Modified: 16 Feb 2011 15:16 GMT |
(Kasserine, Tunisia) - The earth around Kasserine is deep red, contrasting with the lush green vegetation further north. The terrain in the centre of the country becomes noticeably tougher and sparser, giving way to prickly pear cacti and olive trees. The town of Kasserine lies near the Algerian border, in the shadow of Jebel ech Chambi, Tunisia's highest peak. It was the blood that was spilt here over a weekend in January that transformed what had been a regional uprising into a genuinely nationwide movement. It was the massacring of protesters in the centre of the country pushed the middle classes of Tunis into the streets. The bloodshed lasted from January 8-12. Under pressure from protesters and the military, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced to call an end to the shooting of protesters. "Enough firing of real bullets," he said in his final speech on January 13. "I refuse to see new victims fall." Emboldened, the first mass protest on Avenue Habib Bourguiba took place in the capital the very next day. Ben Ali's speech had come too late to save his presidency, and the mood on the streets was unforgiving. Breaking the threshold of fear The protests began on December 17 in the town of Sidi Bouzid, about 75km to the east of Kasserine, after a young street seller named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire. By late December, the protests had spread to other towns in what is one of the poorest regions of the country, including Thala, Regueb, Menzel Bouzaiane and Kasserine. "Mohamed Bouazizi broke the wall of fear. But the real centre of this revolution is Kasserine, and the neighbourhood of Ezzouhour by excellence," Moez Bannani, a teacher at a local high school, said. These protests became more regular and increased in size after students returned to school on January 3. The fighting between protests and security forces intensified in Kasserine on January 7, after a local man set himself on fire, echoing Bouazizi's act. Local police had done little to disperse the protests. Then large numbers of anti-riot police known as the BOP (Brigades de l'Ordre Public) were brought in from other towns. These units beat protesters and used teargas and rubber bullets against them. Responding to the attacks, youths threw stones at police. Some hurled Molotov cocktails, but protests were mostly peaceful. There were no cases of demonstrators using firearms against security forces. Then came a number of unidentified agents wearing different, slicker uniforms from either the BOP or the local police. They used live bullets for the first time on January 8. Amongst the first victims were Mohamed Mbarki, 17, and Slah Dachraoui, 19. Like most of the shootings in Kasserine, Mbarki and Dachraoui were shot at the Monguela roundabout in the poor neighbourhood of Ezzouhour. The following day, four agents stormed the women's hammam, a traditional sauna, on Monguela roundabout, where several women were relaxing with their young children. Rebah Rebhi, the owner of the hammam, said the agents swore at the women and shot teargas into the hammam, blocking them from escaping. When the women, desperate for fresh air, opened a window, agents shot another teargas canister in through the opening, she said. One of the agents who raided the hammam was a woman whose long blond hair flowed out from beneath her helmet. The other three were men, Gadbar said. All were dressed in black uniforms. The terrified, semi-clothed women were only allowed to flee the gas-filled hammam after several minutes, coughing and choking. Rebhi's elderly mother had to be hospitalised, as did some of the children. Saber Rtibi, a 23-year-old who was about to move to France with his father, came to the defence of one of the fleeing women. The young man had just been to the grocery store when he saw his neighbour, Monia Omri, running up the street from the hammam with her young daughter, both coughing from the gas, according to Sourour Abdallah, an 18-year-old who was standing on the street that day. The blond agent was chasing Omri and swearing at her. Rtibi tried to intervene, but the agent shot him in the stomach, killing him slowly. After shooting Rtibi, the blond sniper removed her helmet, tossed her hair and blew kisses in the direction of his body, Abdallah and other witnesses present that day said. Abdallah believes the agents gassed the hammam and insulted the women to provoke a reaction from the youth. "They were doing that so that boys would come to protect their mothers, so they could shoot them," Abdallah said. Security forces also blocked the funeral procession for Mbarki that Sunday, and opened fire on the attendees at Monguela roundabout. Amongst those killed at the funeral was Walid Massoudi, who played football with Mbarki. The most brutal massacre of the Tunisian Uprising would take place the following day, at Massoudi's own funeral. The funeral massacre Security forces tried to forbid locals from joining the funeral procession for Massoudi on January 10. Despite the warning, more than 200 people chose to accompany the young man's coffin through the streets of Ezzouhour to the cemetery. Sayhi Ahmed, a friend of Massoudi who took part in the procession, said they marched to mark the death of Massoudi, and to protest "for freedom, for rights, for human values and for jobs". Anti-riot police refused to allow the cortege to pass, however, blocking its route. Security forces launched teargas, while youths responded by throwing rocks. Shortly after midday, at least five snipers standing on rooftops suddenly started firing on the procession, according to Ahmed. Most of them appeared to be women, he said, wearing helmets and black uniforms, automatic rifles in hand. Amongst those killed was his friend Mohamed Khadraoui, 22, who was felled by a bullet in the head. "He was killed in front of me," Ahmed said. "They killed without pity." Khadraoui's killer, standing on the roof of a cafe, gave the thumbs-up sign after hitting her target. Nasr Ghodhbani's cousin, Abdelkhader Ghodhbani, was also shot during the massacre. He was filming the snipers on his cellphone when he was targeted. The 23-year-old ran into the courtyard of a house belonging to Saida Rebhi to try to escape the shooting, Rebhi said. But the agent pursued her target, broke down the door and gunned the young man down. "The police targeted the youths who were leading the protests, those who were the most courageous, those who had a camera or a cellphone," Nasr Ghodhbani said. Compared to earlier shootings, in which security forces hit their targets mainly in the arms or legs, Ezzine Ben Abdallah, head of forensics at the Kasserine Hospital, said the shootings that took place on January 10 were clearly intended to kill. "We were [in the days prior to January 10] reassured that they weren't aiming at vital parts of the body. But they then changed strategy, brutally," Abdallah said. According to hospital records, eight people were killed in Kasserine that Monday. At least 21 people were killed with live ammunition in Kasserine and Thala between January 8 and 12, according to Human Rights Watch. Yakin Karmazi, a seven-month-old baby, died after her lungs were destroyed by teargas. Intentionally lethal International human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have condemned the Tunisian security forces' "disproportionate use of force" against protesters and bystanders during the uprising. Human Rights Watch said the evidence their team gathered in Kasserine suggested the security agents had breached Tunisian law. The law states that security forces must give clear warning that they will use firearms, and that they should only fire in self-defence. Only when other means to disperse the crowd have been exhausted is shooting at protesters permissible. Sayhi Ahmed said the security forces skipped usual techniques of crowd control. "They went straight for the bullets," he said. Ezzine Ben Abdallah said there is clear evidence that the killings were deliberate. Most of the victims were shot at a range of 50 to 100m, he said. Some of them were shot from behind. Issa Griri, shot during the funeral procession for Mbarki, was one of several people to be shot in back of the head. Others were shot as many as five times. Most security forces did not just opt for live bullets rather than non-lethal rubber bullets. According to Ben Abdallah, they used expanding, "dum-dum" bullets, which are even more deadly than regular ammunition. "It's a type of bullet that explodes at the moment of contact," he said. "When someone is wounded in the abdomen or the thorax, they can't be saved." Mysterious militia All witnesses in Kasserine agreed that the "snipers" responsible for most of the shootings were neither part of the regular police, or members of the BOP. There has been speculation that they were members of the elite presidential guard. But according to a source with ties to the interior ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity, the shooters were members of a special militia that was organised independently from the presidential guard, although they were under the same command. The militia was formed by General Ali Seriati, the former head of presidential security, Rafik Belhaj Kassim, the former interior minister, and Leila Ben Ali, the former First Lady. They recruited members of the national police force and the presidential guard who had been discharged for serious infractions. These agents were given comfortable front positions as civil servants in various government ministries. To guarantee their loyalty, they received a second salary and other perks. During the uprising, the agents were called up for duty. Some were used as snipers or to commit acts of vandalism, whilst others feigned pro-Ben Ali protests, such as the one on the night of Ben Ali's speech. "[The strategy] was aimed at creating chaos, but luckily it didn't work," the source said. Regular police and the army were, overall, against shooting at protesters. Soldiers arrived in Kasserine on January 8, but were not involved in the massacres. They were there strictly to protect banks, government buildings and the RCD offices, Adel Baccari, a local magistrate, said. "From the beginning, [the army was] against shooting at people. That is what prevented an even higher death toll," Baccari said. The type of automatic rifles used by the snipers also suggests they were part of a separate entity. Several people interview noted the fact that the snipers did not carry weapons from the Austrian arms manufacturer Steyr Mannlicher, unlike the rest of the Tunisian security forces. "Steyrs aren't precision weapons. These snipers were not using Steyrs," Ahmed said. After the massacres Seriati and Kassim were arrested days after Ben Ali left the country. They were charged with plotting against state security and for "provoking disorder, murder and pillaging". The blond-haired shooter and her fellow militia members have, for now, disappeared back to wherever they came from. The moment Ben Ali left, the people of Kasserine set about commemorating their dead. Monguela roundabout has become Martyrs' Square. They have erected a memorial with their own hands. Noomen Lobna, was one of a group of artists from Tunis who travelled to Kasserine Hospital last week with medical and food supplies in an act of solidarity with the locals. "We're here to thank them, because the revolution happened here while other Tunisians were still too scared to speak up," Lobna said. "These people were the first to become martyrs. We got our country back thanks to them." Follow Yasmine Ryan on Twitter @yasmineryan. |
Source: Al Jazeera |
Inscription à :
Articles (Atom)