Fresh scuffles broke out Friday as hundreds of Tunisians took to the streets of the capital and of the coastal city of Sfax, waving yellow cards and demanding the government reverse austerity measures.
The unrest started with peaceful protests against the austerity measures last week, but escalated into clashes with police on Monday and Tuesday.
More than 200 young people rallied in Tunis following a call from the Fech Nestannew (“What Are We Waiting For?”) campaign for a protest against the measures imposed at the start of the year, which are expected to raise the cost of living.
Photo: AFP
They held up yellow cards, chanted slogans and scuffled with riot police as they marched on administrative offices in the capital.
“The people want the Finance Act repealed” and “The people are fed up with the new Trabelsi,” they shouted, referring to the graft-tainted in-laws of ousted Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
“We believe that dialogue and reforms are still possible,” Fech Nestannew spokeswoman Henda Chennaoui said. “We’ve got the same demands we’ve been seeking for years — to tackle real problems, like the economic crisis and the high cost of living.”
Photo: AFP
In Sfax, about 200km south of Tunis, about 200 people vented their anger over rising prices, a correspondent reported.
“The people’s money is in the palaces, and the children of the people are in the prisons,” one placard read.
Tunisian authorities on Friday said the number of people detained in the wave of violent protests had risen to nearly 800, after a provincial town was hit by a night of unrest over the austerity measures.
A correspondent in the northern town of Siliana said that police fired tear gas at dozens of young people who pelted them with stones during skirmishes that lasted about three hours overnight.
Tunisian Ministry of the Interior spokesman Khalifa Chibani said that 151 people were arrested on Thursday, taking the number detained for alleged involvement in the violence to 778 after several nights of unrest.
Clashes between youths and police were “limited” and “not serious,” Chibani said, adding that no acts of violence, theft or looting were recorded on Thursday evening.
Rights group Amnesty International said authorities were using “increasingly heavy-handed methods to disperse rallies and subsequently arrest protesters” during the unrest.
“Tunisian security forces must refrain from using excessive force and end their use of intimidation tactics against peaceful demonstrators,” Amnesty said.
One man died in the unrest on Monday night, but the authorities have said that police were not responsible for this.
A number of left-wing activists have been arrested by the authorities in recent days, after officials accused them of fueling the violence.
Several dozen members of the Popular Front party on Friday demonstrated in front of a court in the town of Gafsa after the arrest of several local activists, a correspondent said.
Tunisia is considered a rare success story of the Arab Spring uprisings, which started in the North African country in 2011 and spread across the region, toppling autocrats. However, the authorities have failed to resolve the issues of poverty and unemployment.
Protests are common in Tunisia in January, when people mark the anniversary of the revolution that ousted long-time dictator Ben Ali.
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