Entries (RSS)In Tunisia, It’s Far from Over
While the eyes of the world have been focused on Egypt (myself included), in Tunisia the security forces of the old regime have staged a violent counter-attack against democracy protesters.
- Under the umbrella of legitimate defense, the tigres noirs attacked the protesters with truncheons, dogs, and teargas canisters, tore their tents and chased them away from the Qasbah; they clubbed and injured dozens of them and, according to the Facebook page al-haqaaiq al-qafiyya (Hidden Facts), they killed seven….
The protesters, who were camped outside the offices of the Prime Minister, had come from the region of Sidi Bouzid where the uprising began to demand a complete change in government from the Ben Ali regime. Tunisians seem divided at this point, with some feeling that protests have gone far enough for now, and the new government composed mostly of technocrats should be given time to work; while others believe that justice will not be served until the structures that remain in place from the Ben Ali era are thorougly dismantled.
Here are two excellent articles about the youth uprising in Sidi Bouzid that led to the fall of Ben Ali, from its first days when few outside Tunisia were aware of what was happening, to the state of mind of those same young people today.
- The Arab World’s Youth Army, by Ellen Knickmeyer
(from Foreign Policy)
- A Struggle at Risk of Being Forgotten, by David Williams
(from GlobalPost)
Posted by Marcel Côté on 30 Jan 2011 at 16:32 under Civil Rights, Politics, Tunisia.
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