"Tunisian leaders vow change after assassination; Prime minister plans to dissolve government" by Monica Marks and Kareem Fahim | New York Times, February 07, 2013
TUNIS, Tunisia — Tunisian officials moved quickly Wednesday to contain the political fallout after a leading opposition figure was assassinated outside his home, announcing that they would dissolve the Islamist-led government and calling for a unity Cabinet as thousands took to the streets in protests that the security forces beat back with tear gas.
The killing of Chokri Belaid, one of Tunisia’s best-known human rights defenders and a fierce critic of hard-line Islamists known as Salafis, escalated simmering tensions in a society torn between its legacy as a bastion of Arab secularism and its new role as a proving ground for the region’s ascendant Islamist parties.
The explosion of anger, which led to the death of a police officer in Tunis late Wednesday, posed a severe challenge to the ruling moderate Islamist party, Ennahda, which came to power in Tunisia promising to provide a model government that blended Islamist and democratic rule.
Belaid was shot and killed outside his home in an upscale neighborhood of Tunis on Wednesday as he was getting into his car. The interior minister, citing witnesses, said two unidentified gunmen fired on Belaid, striking him with four bullets.
It looks like an intelligence agency hit, but whose?
The killing, which was the first political assassination since the overthrow of Tunisia’s autocratic leader, marked a dark turn for the country that set off the Arab uprisings in 2011. It resonated in countries like Egypt and Libya, struggling to contain political violence while looking to Tunisia’s chaotic but orderly transition as a hopeful example.
Do you know who came up with the term Arab Spring?
I once thought they were spontaneous voices of the people; now I realize they were intelligence agency assets that were activated. That's not to say all the protesters are controlled, it's to say that the organizers and leaders behind them are.
The other question is what was to be gained by dispatching friendly dictators, and the answer is they were stale. Thus the empire-builders and war-planners dispatch them in favor of a fresher face.
“Confronting violence, radicalism, and the forces of darkness is the main priorities for societies if they want freedom and democracy,’’ Amr Hamzawy, a member of Egypt’s main secular opposition coalition, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. ‘‘Assassinating Chokri Belaid is warning bell in Tunisia, and in Egypt, too.’’
The response by Tunisian officials was also being closely watched.Thousands of people took to the streets of Tunis and other cities to protest the assassination. There were clashes on Avenue Habib Bourgiba in Tunis, as riot police fired tear gas and beat protesters.
The prime minister, Hamadi Jabali, called the killing a ‘‘heinous crime against the Tunisian people, against the principle of the revolution and the values of tolerance and acceptance of the other.’’
Bowing to the widespread outrage, Jabali said he was dissolving the Islamist-led government, and replacing Cabinet ministers with technocrats not tied to any political party — an expected move hastened by the crisis. The country’s president, Moncef Marzouki, cut short an overseas trip to deal with the fallout.
That's a third benefit of the Arab Spring. Show the world that elected Islamist governments don't work.
Belaid, who was in his late 40s, and others had accused Ennahda of accommodating the Salafis, by refusing to prosecute them or crack down on the groups. In recent days, Belaid, a lawyer who had received numerous death threats including from hard-line imams, had accused Islamists of carrying out an attack on a meeting of his supporters Saturday.
“At the end of our meeting, a group of Ennahda mercenaries and Salafists attacked our activists,’’ Belaid said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing. In a statement Wednesday, Ennahda denied any responsibility, saying the killing jeopardized the ‘‘security and stability of Tunisia.’’
A hallmark of an intelligence agency or security service operation.
In Washington, the State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, criticized the killing, calling it an ‘‘outrageous and cowardly act.’’
Again, when they say something like that it usually means they were in on it somehow.
She urged the government in Tunis to conduct a ‘‘fair, transparent, and professional investigation to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice consistent with Tunisian law and international norms.’’
That's something in light of the slipshod shit coming from Boston.
Noting the protests that erupted in response to the killing, Nuland called on all Tunisians ‘‘to respect the rule of law, to renounce violence, and to express themselves about this incident and anything else peacefully.’’
As news of the assassination spread, thousands of people gathered in front of the Interior Ministry headquarters, a building that is still a hated symbol of Tunisia’s deposed authoritarian leader, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, to express anger at Tunisia’s new government.
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"Tunisia’s ruling party rejects proposal to dissolve government" by Abigail Hauslohner | Washington Post, February 08, 2013
CAIRO — Tunisia’s ruling Islamist party rejected Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali’s offer to dissolve the government Thursday, a day after the assassination of an opposition leader sent waves of anger rippling through the North African country and left the government scrambling to contain the fallout.
The challenge put forward by the moderate Islamist Ennahda party has amplified the potential for a serious political crisis in Tunisia.
Chokri Belaid, a leader of the leftist Popular Front alliance and an outspoken critic of Tunisia’s government, was shot dead outside his home Wednesday, a day after he received the latest in a string of death threats and called for a national conference on political violence.
No one has asserted responsibility for the attack. But Belaid’s death sparked an outcry from Tunisian opposition members, who blamed extremist Islamist groups and Ennahda, the party that heads the government.
Clashes between Belaid supporters and police continued for a second day Thursday. Protesters hurled rocks at police amid showers of tear gas in the capital, Tunis, and in the central city of Gafsa, local media reported. The violence in Tunis on Wednesday left one police officer dead.
Government officials swiftly condemned Belaid’s killing, and, in an attempt to defuse the situation, Jebali said he would dissolve the government as soon as possible and form a Cabinet composed of technocrats who would work to move the country toward a national election.
But on Thursday, Ennahda, which Jebali also heads, rejected the move.
‘‘Ennahda movement does not agree with the stance that the head of the government Hamadi Jebali took last night,’’ Abdelhamid Jelassi, the party’s vice president, said in comments published on Ennahda’s website.
Belaid’s killing underscores a political rift between newly empowered Islamists and their secular opposition that has deepened in states across North Africa since the Arab Spring. Two years after the uprising that ousted President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the assassination follows a growing pattern of political and religious violence, as democratic elections and the fall of an autocrat have empowered Islamist groups, including fundamentalist Salafists, to flex their muscles in an environment with freer politics but far less security.
I'm sorry, but when I see Islamist groups in my newspaper I'm thinking intelligence agencies.
See:
Six Zionist Companies Own 96% of the World's Media
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
Operation Mockingbird
Why Am I No Longer Reading the Newspaper?
Yeah, who are the terrorists again?
Over the past year, Tunisia’s most radical Salafists have carried out attacks on liberal intellectuals, artists, human rights activists, and journalists. They have also attacked alcohol sellers, art exhibits, movie theaters, and shrines. And they are accused of carrying out an assault on the US Embassy in Tunis in September, allegedly in retaliation for an anti-Islam film produced in the United States.
I'm sorry, I missed the Muslim protests.
Opposition leaders have criticized Ennahda for its failure to rein in the Salafists. In a recent interview, Belaid accused the party of giving a ‘‘green light’’ to political assassinations. The day before his death, he also warned at a news conference that Tunisia could soon be engulfed by political violence.
As political tensions continued to grip the country, Tunisia’s national bar association said its members would go on strike Thursday and Friday in protest over Belaid’s killing, the Tunisian state news wire TAP reported. The country’s main labor union also declared a strike for Friday, AP reported....
Tunisia’s government has not been alone in its struggle to manage the extremist threat and in its growing confrontation with a liberal opposition.
New moderate Islamist governments in Egypt and Libya also have been struggling to contain extremist groups on the one hand and an increasingly angry secular opposition on the other, in battles for influence over new constitutions, elected bodies, and legislation.
Interesting. After the leader is gone the country is weaker.
But Shadi Hamid, a Middle East specialist at the Brookings Doha Center, said the divide that has come with the Arab Spring’s nascent pluralism was predictable....
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"Violence erupts at Tunisian opposition leader’s funeral; Hundreds of thousands turn out" by Bouazza Ben Bouazza and Greg Keller | Associated Press, February 09, 2013
TUNIS — The funeral of a slain Tunisian opposition leader was marred Friday by clashes between police and gangs of young men destroying nearby cars, as black smoke spiraled from burning vehicles into the sky and clouds of tear gas floated over the nearby cemetery.
Hundreds of thousands of Tunisians chanting antigovernment slogans converged on the Jellaz cemetery for the funeral of Chokri Belaid, a left-wing politician whose assassination Wednesday outside his home has exacerbated Tunisia’s political crisis and escalated tensions in the North African nation that helped kick off the Arab Spring.
The murder of Belaid, a harsh critic of the Islamist government, sparked days of rioting by his supporters, who hold the ruling Ennahda party complicit in his death.
The nation was largely shut down Friday due to a general strike called by the labor unions in solidarity, and the national carrier Tunis Air canceled all its flights.
Late Friday, Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said he still intends to install a technocratic government — a decision he first announced hours after Belaid’s killing and which was rejected by his own ruling party. He expressed confidence that Ennahda would back him, and suggested he would resign if the plan failed to get approval.
Belaid’s funeral procession passed into the cemetery amid a scene of chaos caught live on television. Family members and associates wept as he was lowered into the earth and his colleague Hamma Hammami of the Tunisian Workers’ Party gave the eulogy.
‘‘Sleep well, Chokri, we will continue the fight,’’ he said, even as the acrid stench of the tear gas fired outside hung in the air.
Hundreds of young men threw rocks at police trying to stop them from destroying cars in a nearby municipal lot, and police responded with tear gas. TV images showed the youths pushing cars into the street, and the cars bursting into flame.
Witnesses described the young men in tracksuits — many armed with clubs and machetes — as hooligans seeking to take advantage of the turmoil surrounding the funeral.
‘‘These kids are uncontrollable and don’t follow any political ideology,’’ said Moncef Chebbi, 68, a retired computer programmer attending the funeral. He said they came from nearby low-income neighborhoods. ‘‘This is very disappointing; it’s a shame.’’
Khaled Tarrouch, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said 132 people were arrested and around a dozen cars set on fire. He said they were being questioned to see if someone was behind the violence.
There were demonstrations and symbolic funerals held for Belaid in several cities around the country.
Once the standard bearer in the region for its political consensus, the Tunisia’s transition to democracy since the 2011 ouster of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has been shaken by a sour economy and political turmoil pitting the country’s governing Islamists against secular parties, sometimes violently.
Yeah, the good old days -- that were never really that good.
Efforts to stem the country’s worst crisis since the revolution have so far failed and the anti-government sentiment at the cemetery was palpable. Before the body arrived, there was a brief scuffle when officials identified as being with the governing coalition were stopped by the crowd from entering.
The army, one of the few state institutions still holding people’s respect, provided security for the funeral march and could play the role of a stabilizing force in the coming weeks.
Belaid had accused the Ennahda party of resorting to thugs to attack opposition rallies.
His family and allies accuse the party of complicity in his murder.
Although they have offered no proof, the allegations have fanned popular dissatisfaction with the government.
‘‘We can’t accept that they assassinate freedom, that they assassinate democracy — that’s what they are doing — we are burying a martyr,’’ said Mohammed Souissi, a 63-year-old veterinarian who showed up at the cemetery, where the crowd seemed unfazed by the intermittent rain and sang the national anthem and chanted ‘‘Ghannouchi assassin,’’ a reference to Rachid Ghannouchi, the head of Ennahda.
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"Tunisian leader to quit if Cabinet plan rejected" by Greg Keller and Bouazza Ben Bouazza | Associated Press, February 10, 2013
TUNIS — Tunisia’s Islamist prime minister said on Saturday he will resign if his proposal to appoint a nonpolitical Cabinet by midweek is rejected.
Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali called for that change on Wednesday after Tunisia was thrown into a crisis when an opposition politician was shot and killed in Tunis, touching off violent protests.
Supporters of the Ennahda party also protested Saturday, which was the third straight day of unrest in Tunisia.
Jebali’s moderate Islamist Ennahda party has already rejected his proposal. But he didn’t flinch, saying in an interview with the France-24 TV channel that to change the situation government ministers must be replaced by ones without a political affiliation, notably technocrats. ‘‘I feel obliged to save my country,’’ he said, adding that Tunisia risks a ‘‘swing into chaos.’’
If his new team is accepted, ‘‘I will continue to assume my role,’’ Jebali said. If not, he will withdraw from government.
As Jabali spoke, several thousand progovernment protesters rallied on the main avenue of the capital. But outside Tunis, groups of youths threw stones at offices of the governing party and attacked police stations in several cities in scattered unrest.
The Interior Ministry said 230 people have been arrested since Friday, the day Chokri Belaid was buried. The slaying of the respected opposition figure unleashed anger, and his funeral drew hundreds of thousands of mourners chanting antigovernment slogans in Tunis.
Saturday was the third straight day of unrest in this North African country, which overthrew its long-ruling president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in January 2011, kicking off the Arab Spring revolutions.
With tension mounting, Jebali said that he will appoint a new Cabinet by midweek, saying it would be small, made up of technocrats and therefore neutral.
Jebali said key ministries, notably Interior, Justice, and Foreign Affairs, would not be excluded from the plan. Those ministries are currently led by members of his Ennahda party.
He called the planned changes a ‘‘Cabinet reshuffle’’ that would avoid the complicated — and riskier — process of dissolving the government. Such a new government would need approval from Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly.
But under Tunisian law, each new Cabinet minister also would still need individual approval from the Assembly — where Jebali’s Ennahda party has a majority.
The shooting death Wednesday of Belaid, a lawyer and opposition figure, added to the growing turmoil in Tunisia, where the transition from dictatorship to democracy has been shaken by religious divides, political wrangling and economic struggles.
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"Political crisis in Tunisia worsens" by Greg Keller | Associated Press, February 11, 2013
TUNIS — Tunisia’s political crisis entered a new phase Sunday with an announcement that Cabinet ministers of the president’s own party are quitting the governing coalition, which could force the ruling Islamists to compromise with the opposition.
Veteran observers of Tunisia’s politics caution that the nation’s well-earned reputation as a stable bastion of moderation risks being put to the test, if the ruling Ennahda Party of moderate Islamists mishandles its response to the assassination Wednesday of opposition politician Chokri Belaid.
So, this unclaimed assassination is a test!
The killing of Belaid came amid deadlock between the opposition and the governing coalition of the moderate Islamist Ennahda and two secular parties.
Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali offered the compromise long sought by the opposition and said he would form a government of technocrats unconnected to parties, to see the nation through the crisis.
However, his party rejected his plan, saying they had been elected by the people and should continue to rule — highlighting the divisions not just between the government and the opposition, but within the governing party itself.
The announcement Sunday that Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki’s secular party is quitting the coalition government might in the end actually strengthen officials such as Jebali seeking a compromise, said analyst Riccardo Fabiani.
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"Tunisian leader fights party, may resign" by Bouazza Ben Bouazza | Associated Press, February 15, 2013
TUNIS, Tunisia — In the midst of an ongoing tussle between the governing coalition and the opposition, leftist politician Chokri Belaid was shot four times in his car at his home Feb. 6, setting off antigovernment riots. Hundreds of thousands showed up at his funeral, and the Ennahda-led administration was widely blamed for creating the violent environment that resulted in his death.
In response, Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali called for a government of technocrats to end the transitional period by speeding up the writing of the new constitution and holding long-awaited new elections. His initiative has been warmly welcomed by civil society and the opposition.
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"Tunisia hopes new leaders can calm nation’s tension" by Bouazza Ben Bouazza | Associated Press, March 14, 2013
TUNIS — Tunisian lawmakers approved a new government Wednesday that the dominant Islamist party hopes will quell tensions over the killing of an opposition leader and a resurgence in religious activity.
The easy approval was overshadowed by the death of a young street vendor who set himself on fire in apparent desperation over his failure to find a steady job, an act that reminded Tunisians of a similar incident that sparked street revolts that kicked off Arab Spring uprisings here and elsewhere in 2011.
Did that incident really happen as reported?
It also underscored that many of the disparities that led to their longtime dictator’s ouster two years ago remain unresolved....
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Also see: Tunisian Patriots Take A Brave Stand Against Bloodthirsty Saudi Puppets
I suppose that is a possibility. If the assassin was Saudi that would explain the quiet.
How much did the last guy $teal?
"Tunisia gets $28m from ex-leader" by Bouazza Ben Bouazza | Associated Press, April 13, 2013
TUNIS, Tunisia — Officials trying to right Tunisia’s ailing economy shouldn’t count on an estimated $20 billion still to be recovered from the family of the deposed dictator, a prominent Tunisian economist said Friday.
And how much did they get back?
A $28 million check was presented to Tunisia on Thursday, but Ezzedine Saidane said that money was from an easily recovered Lebanese bank account owned by Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s wife — and the rest won’t be so easy to get back. ‘‘It will take 15 to 20 years just to get the crumbs,’’ he said. He suggested that Tunisia review its methods of recovering the money.
Ben Ali was ousted in January 2011, inspiring the North African prodemocracy movement.
Saidane estimated there was up to $20 billion taken by Ben Ali and the Trabelsi clan, based on an independent study he conducted with other economists.
Also Friday, a mob of alleged religious conservatives attacked a police station in the coastal town of Hergla and clashed with security forces, leaving one person dead and two wounded, the state news agency reported.
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