Tunisia President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali blamed weekend rioting that left at least 14 people dead on “gangs of thugs”, dismissing increasing concern from the international community.
Ben Ali also pledged in a television address on Monday that his government would create 300 000 new jobs to tackle the unemployment seen by many as the core of the weeks of unrest that escalated at the weekend.
To try to stem the unrest, the government has closed all schools and universities from Tuesday until further notice.
But fresh clashes erupted on Monday after weekend clashes in which security forces opened fire on protesters.
Ben Ali blamed the violence on “hostile elements in the pay of foreigners, who have sold their soul to extremism and terrorism, and are manipulated from outside the country”.
These groups, which he did not identify, incited violence and encouraged people to demonstrate by spreading false information and “slogans of despair”, he said.
‘Hostile elements’
He has previously accused the opposition of exploiting the situation, with the protests kicking off after a university student set himself alight in a work protest on December 17.
The European Union and France called for restraint and calm as the new protests broke out on Monday. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for restraint, dialogue and full respect for free expression.
But Tunisia summoned the US ambassador Gordon Gray after Washington last week condemned the crackdown on rioters.
Saida Chtioui, secretary of state in the foreign ministry, expressed her “surprise” at the US State Department’s criticism, Tunisia’s state news agency TAP reported.
It had been based on “information gathered from hostile elements”, she said.
“We wonder about the reaction of the American authorities to a so-called peaceful demonstration, during which Molotov cocktails were thrown and premises were vandalised and burned,” she added.
Interference
The United States last week raised concerns with Tunisia about its handling of the unrest and called for “restraint”.
It also expressed concern over apparent “interference” with the internet by the Tunis government, accused of arresting dissident bloggers and hacking and blocking certain websites.
Chtioui denied any sites had been blocked and said the bloggers had been released.
The government has said 14 people were killed over the weekend, but that its forces had acted in self defence. The opposition says at least 20 have died.
There were more clashes on Monday in the towns of Kasserine, Thala and Regueb, with police using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators while security forces were on alert in the capital.
‘Great number’ of wounded
A union member shot in Sunday’s unrest died of bullet wounds on Monday in hospital in Kasserine, 290km south of Tunis, said Sadok Mahmoudi from the regional branch of the UGTT workers union.
The hospital, under army control, was treating a “great number” of wounded, he said.
In the central town of Regueb, police dispersed protesters who had gathered as five people who died in the weekend’s violence were being buried, an Agence France-Presse reporter said.
In Tunis, anti-riot police used truncheons to disperse thousands of young people protesting at Passage square in the city centre.
The youths had been called to the demonstration via Facebook, which posted the national flag drenched in blood on its wall in a sign of revolt against the weekend violence.
Ben Ali on Monday also called a national conference on unemployment for February and urged regional officials to improve “channels of contact with the people, to listen to their concerns.”
‘Respect of fundamental freedoms’
Tunisia’s unemployment rate is officially 14%, but the percentage of graduates without work is about double that.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said: “We call for restraint in the use of force and for respect of fundamental freedoms.”
She also called for the “immediate release from detention of bloggers, journalists, lawyers and other people who were detained, who were peacefully demonstrating in Tunisia”.
Former colonial power France called for restraint.
“We deplore the violence, which caused casualties, and call for calm,” said a French foreign ministry spokesperson Bernard Valero. — Sapa-AFP