/ 21 January 2011

Tunisia mourns for dozens of fallen protesters

Tunisia Mourns For Dozens Of Fallen Protesters

Tunisians lowered flags and state television played recitations of the Quran on Friday to mourn dozens who died in protests that drove the country’s iron-fisted president from power.

Demonstrators gathered peacefully across from the long-dreaded Interior Ministry, chanting “Down with the government”. The site, cordoned off by security forces, has seen near-daily protests for the past week by those who say the caretaker government is still too dominated by the old guard.

The government declared three days of national mourning beginning on Friday, as it struggles to restore calm and reconcile a hopeful but scarred country, a beach and desert haven for European tourists.

As the protests peaked a week ago, President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia.

The interior minister said 78 civilians were killed, many shot by police, in nearly a month of protests over unemployment, corruption and repression. A French photographer was also killed, as were some members of the security forces, and scores of people were injured.

On Friday, flags were lowered at public buildings around Tunisia, and television showed little but Quran recitations.

In the streets of the capital Tunis, however, many shops and businesses opened as usual.

‘This is a good government’
The day before, the army fired warning shots to calm a noisy but peaceful protest in front of the long-ruling RCD party’s headquarters, where demonstrators took down a huge sign and demanded that the government be dismantled, too.

Ministers in that government, Tunisia’s first multiparty Cabinet, met for the first time on Thursday and came out showing a united front. The government has already seen several resignations since it was formed on Monday.

The government suggested that Islamists imprisoned under Ben Ali would be amnestied.

Tunisians espousing political Islam are now seeking a place in government. But they will face many challenges in this westward-looking nation where abortions — taboo in many Muslim societies — are legal and Muslim headscarves are banned in public buildings.

The government also pledged to restore goods and real estate appropriated by the ruling party under Ben Ali.

Slim Amamou, a blogger who was named to the government this week, tweeted throughout a Cabinet meeting and at the end told reporters, “This is a good government”. — Sapa-AP