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Tunisia situation volatile
People arming themselves in fear of the militia while politicians struggle to form a coalition government.
Last Modified: 16 Jan 2011 16:17 GMT
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There are reports of shots being fired near the headquarters of Tunisia's opposition Progressive Democratic Party opposition in the centre of the capital, Tunis.
The party, which issued a statement on Sunday's shooting, said that police and military stopped a carload of armed men, who it described as foreigners, after which shots were fired.
Armed militias have taken to the streets of Tunisia following the toppling of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, sowing fear among the population as the north African nation's new leadership attempts to bring order and form a coalition government.
Looting and deadly prison riots have erupted throughout the country after mass protests forced Ben Ali, who had been in power since 1987, to flee to Saudi Arabia.
Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from Tunis, said there were not many details on the shooting near the PDP's headquarters, but that there have been other shootings in the city and that, even though there are army road blocks set up throughout the city, people are saying that they need to arm themselves against the police, who they do not trust.
"In between the road blocks, we were coming across large groups of people who had their own home-made weapons, axes and steel bars, and some of them were not particularly friendly to us when we wanted to film in the area," our correspondent said.
He said the situation was "pretty volatile" even for ordinary people. "We were filming the hardships of the ordinary people of the city - a bread queue ... and then members of the crowd turned on us and said 'it was shameful for you to film us in this situation, begging for bread'," he said, adding that the TV crew just managed to escape the large, angry crowd.
Loyalists targeted
Against this backdrop of uncertainty, our correspondent said, the army was rounding up those loyal to Ben Ali, including members of the presidential police.
In Sunday's most prominent arrest, Tunisia's former interior minister, the man many held responsible for a police crackdown on anti-government protesters, was held in his home town in the north of the country.
Rafik Belhaj, who was the most senior official in charge of the police force, was arrested in Beja on Sunday afternoon.
Follow Al Jazeera's complete coverage Belhaj had been dismissed from his position on Wednesday in what would turn out to be one of Ben Ali's final efforts to placate public anger with his leadership.Separately, Tunisian state television announced that General Ali Seryati, the former head of Ben Ali's security service, wouldl appear in court to face charges of threatening national security and provoking armed violence.
Also on Sunday, the AFP news agency reported that a member of the president's extended family had died of a knife wound two days earlier.
Imed Trabelsi, a nephew of Ben Ali's wife, died in a military hospital in Tunis, a staff member told the AFP. He was the first person in the president's extended family reported to have died as a result of the uprising.
Trabelsi was an influential businessman and became more widely known after he was mentioned in a US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks that said he was reported to have stolen a yacht belonging to the chairman of the powerful French financial firm, Lazard.
Salim Shayboub, Ben Ali's son-in-law, also reportedly has been arrested.
Dissident to return
As Tunisia attempts to reconstruct its government, the exiled head of one of its leading opposition parties has announced his intent to return to the country.
Rashid al-Ghannouchi, the leader of the Islamist Nahdha (Renaissance) party, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that he and other leading figures would "return shortly" to Tunisia.
The Nahdha, formed in 1988, never gained legal status under Ben Ali because of a law prohibiting political parties based on religion.
According to human rights groups, its members have long suffered persecution and torture.
Ghannouchi said Nahdha should be recognised and said that it is ready to take part in a coalition government.
Fouad Mebezaa, the speaker of parliament, was sworn in as the country's interim president on Saturday and promised to create a unity government that could include the long-ignored opposition. It was the second change of power in Tunisia in less than 24 hours.
Earlier, Mohammed Ghannouchi, the prime minister, went on state television to announce that he had taken power in accordance with the constitution, after Ben Ali fled on Friday.
Controversial refuge
Abdulaziz Alkhamis, a Saudi journalist, told Al Jazeera that he was not surprised that Ben Ali was granted refuge in Saudi Arabia.
"Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is not the first one," he said, pointing out that Habib Bourguiba, a former Tunisian president, and Abdelaziz Boutaflika, Algeria's current president, had also sought refuge in Saudi Arabia in the past.
Alkhamis said "many of the other fugitives ... [have] been in Saudi Arabia before, with welcome from the Saudi government. It’s important to note that in Arabic tradition, you can’t turn down any displaced Arab coming to you."
But Alkhamis said it would be naïve to neglect that actual reason behind Saudi’s hospitality. "The strong relationship between Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and the royal family and Saudi Arabia," as well as the security relationship between Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.
He said the general view of Saudi society on the government's practice of giving safe haven to political fugitives is one of disapproval, especially in the case of Ben Ali, "because of his reputation in the Arab world as one of the dictators coming again to Saudi Arabia after Idi Amin, the Ugandan president."
"This is what shames us all as Saudis."
Looting outbreak
Amid the political instability, looters emptied shops and torched the main train station in Tunis on Saturday. Soldiers traded fire with unidentified armed men in front of the interior ministry.
"If the interim government doesn't quickly implement measures to reduce the level of unemployment and increase standards of living, we are going to see more of these protests," Ayesha Sabavala, deputy editor of the Economist Intelligence Unit, told Al Jazeera.
Youssef Gaigi, a blogger and activist based in Tunisia, said: "The army is all over the place in Tunis, they are trying to check cars and control people going by."
Some rioters appeared to be targeting businesses owned by members of Ben Ali's family. In Tunis, a branch of the Zeitouna bank founded by Ben Ali's son-in-law was torched, as were vehicles made by Kia, Fiat and Porsche - carmakers distributed in Tunisia by members of the ruling family.
Public television station TV7 broadcast phone calls from residents on Tunis's outskirts, describing attacks by knife-wielding assailants.
Amid the turmoil, Tunisians have organised themselves to protect their neighbourhoods, Amine Ghali, a democracy advocate in Tunisia, told Al Jazeera.
"There is a serious security issue, but people are getting organised. They are standing in front of their neighbourhoods, forming neighbourhood committees ... they are trying to be as calm as possible and trying to help the military," he said.
Residents of some Tunis neighbourhoods set up barricades and organised overnight patrols to deter rioters. In El Menzah, dozens of men and boys armed with baseball bats and clubs were taking turns on patrol - just as a broadcast on Tunisian television had urged citizens to do.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
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Topics in this article People
- Ben Ali
- Imed Trabelsi
- Youssef Gaigi
- Mohammed Ghannouchi
- Salim Shayboub
- Tarek Mghirbi
- Lilia Ben Romdhan
- Fouad Mebezaa
- Ali Seryati
- Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
- Mohamed V
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