Tunisia fears fresh violence
2013-02-07 13:58
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Tunis - Tunisia was hit by strikes on Thursday as the murder
of an outspoken opposition leader threatened to reignite violence despite the
premier's attempts to defuse the crisis by pledging to form a new government.
Lawyers and judges across the country as well as teachers at
Mandouba university, near Tunis, kicked off a two-day strike in response to the
killing of Chokri Belaid outside his home on Wednesday, officials said.
The influential labour union, UGTT, meanwhile, was meeting
to decide its course of action in the wake of the killing.
Police deployed in numbers in the capital's Habib Bourguiba
Avenue, epicentre of the 2011 uprising that toppled ex-dictator Zine El Abidine
Ben Ali, and where thousands had gathered Wednesday in scenes reminiscent of
the revolution.
Security trucks, buses and vans were visible around the city
centre and roads near the interior ministry were closed to traffic.
Shops reopened in the area, but many of them kept their
shutters down to protect their windows.
While opposition parties and unions refrained from calling
people onto the streets on Thursday, spontaneous protests that erupted in a
dozen towns and cities the previous day served as a reminder that social
upheaval remains a real threat.
Grief and hope
One policeman was killed after being hit by rocks in Tunis,
while protesters torched and ransacked offices of the ruling Islamist Ennahda
party in a number of towns as news spread of Belaid's assassination.
Ennahda has been squarely accused by Belaid's family of
being behind the killing, which was carried out by a lone gunman - charges it
vigorously denies.
Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who hails from Ennahda, said
in a televised address on Wednesday that he would form a new administration of
non-political technocrats ahead of fresh elections.
"I have decided to form a government of competent
nationals without political affiliation, which will have a mandate limited to
managing the affairs of the country until elections are held in the shortest
possible time," he said.
Jebali did not specify that he was dissolving the existing
government, nor did he set a date for the reshuffle which must be confirmed by
the national assembly.
Tunisian media voiced fears that the murder of Belaid, a
prestigious leftist opposition figure and outspoken critic of the ruling
Islamists, could plunge the country into a new cycle of violence.
"The turn is extremely dangerous, as it is clear that
nobody is safe now from death squads," said the daily Le Quotidien, which
called on the government to "distance itself from the spectre of civil
war."
La Presse said on Thursday that it was torn between
"grief and hope".
"This is a welcome decision but a bit late," the
paper said of Jebali's announcement, adding that "it took the death of a
brave man" to push the government reshuffle that has been awaited for
months.
Rising violence
Four opposition groups including Belaid's Popular Front bloc
said they were pulling out of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA), which
was elected in October 2011 but has failed to draft a new constitution.
The four groups blamed Interior Minister Ali Laraydeh from
Ennahda for Belaid's murder and demanded his sacking "because he knew he
was threatened and he did nothing", according to Nejib Chebbi, leader of
one of the blocs.
"The government is no longer capable of managing the
affairs of the country, just like the NCA. They must resign in the interests of
the people, of Tunisia and of stability," Beji Caid Essebsi, a
centre-right opposition leader and former premier told Shems FM radio station.
Belaid's family said his funeral will take place on Friday
after the main weekly prayers.
The killing comes at a time of rising violence in Tunisia
stoked by political and social discontent two years after the mass uprising
that forced Ben Ali to flee and touched off the Arab Spring.
Militias close to Ennahda have, in particular, been accused of
organising attacks on the secular opposition and trade unions, including
beating to death a local opposition representative in a town in southern
Tunisia in October.
