Africa Police join protests in Tunisia
Last Modified: 22 Jan 2011 15:29 GMT
Police, national guards and firemen joined Saturday's protests, distancing themselves from the government [Reuters] Thousands of demonstrators, including police officers, lawyers and students, have taken to the streets of Tunisia's capital in another day of unrest in the North African country.
While many protesters are continuing to demand the dissolution of the interim government, police officers who have also joined the protests are seeking better working conditions and an improvement to what they call unfair media portrayal.
Saturday's protests come in the wake of a month of turmoil that toppled Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia's longstanding ruler.
Crowds gathered in front of the office of Mohamed Ghannouchi, the interim prime minister, and on Tunis' main street, the Avenue Habib Bourguiba. They were joined by members of the national guard and fire departments.
Al Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri, reporting from Tunis, said that police were marching with protesters, wearing red armbands in solidarity with the marching crowds.
"They said they want to be with people now, they want to be part of the revolution," she said.
"They no longer want to be persecuted - they say, 'Please don't blame us for the deaths of the protesters'."
Follow Al Jazeera's coverage of the
turmoil in TunisiaIndeed, the protesters have changed tactics.
At the prime minister's office, Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra reported, protesters broke through barricades but no violence occurred.
He reported that the anti-riot squad pleaded with the crowd, saying: 'Do whatever you want to do but please don't storm the office of the prime minister. That is a red line."
But protesters were already starting to break the barricades by late afternoon.
Masoud Romdhani, a trade union activist who was at the demonstration, told Al Jazeera that the protests must continue in order to oust the Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD), the former ruling party, entirely.
He said that labour activists feel that "nothing is done" until the RCD is removed from the cabinet entirely.
Many are angry over the inclusion of several prominent members of Ben Ali's cabinet in the new interim government. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets on Friday as well, seeking the dissolution of the interim administration.
Ghannouchi's pledge
Sami Zaoui, Tunisian secretary for communication technologies, told Al Jazeera that more than two-thirds of the new government comes from "civil society" and opposition parties. He also downplayed the importance of the protests as "very local demonstrations".
"We can not say that the whole or the entire country is currently demonstrating," said Zaoui. He also said that he didn't feel the the prime minister was "in a difficult situation".
Yet, in an effort to dampen continued anger, Ghannouchi, a former ally of Ben Ali, has pledged to quit politics after elections that he says will be held as soon as possible.
In an interview on Tunisian television on Friday, Ghannouchi said he would leave power after a transition phase that leads to legislative and presidential elections "in the shortest possible timeframe".
Ghannouchi has said he will not run in presidential elections, which must be held within 60 days [Reuters] He was a member the RCD. Despite resigning his membership in the party, he has been struggling to restore calm under a new multiparty government that the opposition complains retains too many RCD members.
"My role is to bring my country out of this temporary phase and even if I am nominated I will refuse it and leave politics," Ghannouchi said.
He did not say why he was leaving politics or specify when the elections would be held. He said the elections must be a success "to show the world that our country has a civilisation".
Ghannouchi also said that all of the assets held abroad by Ben Ali's regime had been frozen and would be returned to Tunisia after an investigation.
Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyedin, reporting from Tunis, said that Ghannouchi also announced that the state would provide compensation to those who died during the uprising, as well as their families.
The army and the justice department have been ordered to preserve any documents and evidence that can be gathered so the old government can be implicated throughout the investigation, our correspondent said.
Mourning period
Tunisia began three days of mourning on Friday, lowering flags to half-mast and broadcasting recitations of the Quran to mourn dozens who died in the protests that drove the Ben Ali from power.
Central Tunis has seen near-daily demonstrations in the past week by those who say the caretaker government is still too dominated by allies of the ousted president, but security forces and the army have not opened fire since Ben Ali's overthrow.
The US, meanwhile, has voiced support for the will of the Tunisian people.
"It is very important that we have a broad dialogue with civil society, some important steps have already been taken by authorising opposition parties and liberalising media coverage," PJ Crowley, the US state department spokesman, told Al Jazeera.
"These are important steps by clearly it needs to be more to satisfy the Tunisian people."
The US ambassador to Tunisia, Gordon Gray, told Al Jazeera earlier in his first public remarks on the uprising that the democratic transition remained "a work in progress" and represented "a new phenomenon".
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Police join protests in Tunisia - Africa - Al Jazeera English
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