Tunisian protesters decry new government's leftovers from old regime
A crowd of about 300 protesters gathered in central Tunis Tuesday morning, with police lobbing tear gas canisters to disperse them. Officers beat some demonstrators. One man had his arm broken.
The people were angry about the country's new unity government, saying they don't want anyone from the old administration, which fell apart after longtime president Ben Ali fled last week.
"No leftovers from the old regime!" they chanted.
Lotfi Al Ahwal a senior member of the General Union of Tunisian Workers, has confirmed that the union's administrative committee is calling for all of its members to resign from the recently formed unity government. Three secretaries have already resigned, Al Ahwal said.
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The union's administrative committee, which met on Tuesday in a Tunisian suburb, decided not to accept any government that has officials from the old regime and called for demonstrations against the ruling party.
But Tunisian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi, in an interview with Europe 1 radio, said such officials kept their positions "because we need them in this time of building democracy."
"All ministers who have retained their jobs have clean hands and they are very competent. They also have a merit. With their dedication, they have succeeded in reducing the destructive capacity of some areas," he said.
He emphasized that a new election will take place in six months and will be the first election to be held in a free Tunisia.
Ghannouchi also said that "we will not forgive" those responsible for wrongful shootings, including people who may have been personal officers of Ben Ali, and that "all those who were behind this massacre will be held responsible."
Weeks of demonstrations have left 78 dead, the government said. Many of the injured were police officers, according to the country's interior minister. It was not immediately clear how many may have been shot by those affiliated with Ben Ali.
Ghannouchi -- who said the military didn't shoot people -- emphasized that he never gave any order for police to shoot people and only allowed tear gas and rubber bullets.
"It is better to give your life up than to create a carnage," Ghannouchi said he told police.
On Monday, Tunisian opposition leaders joined the current ruling party in a new government to replace Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia last week after ruling the country for 23 years.
As Tunisia adjusts to a new government, some say they are cautiously optimistic about the future -- and freedoms -- of Tunisians.
Selma Beji, a Tunisian native who is pursuing a master's degree in the United States, said she was amazed that demonstrations -- driven largely by young adults and social media -- have led to such a revolution.
"We were like, this is going to die off," said Beji, whose family lives in the northern suburbs of Tunis. But "Facebook was the drive of this revolution. Everybody was on Facebook ... If these protests started five years ago, they would have died."
Ben Ali's departure followed weeks of protests over what Tunisians said were poor living conditions, high unemployment, government corruption and repression.
Al Kallel, a Tunisian native living in California, and a group of Tunisian friends held up signs at Facebook's headquarters in Palo Alto, California, on Saturday to "thank Facebook for enabling our nation (both inside and outside the country) to freely share their opinion online, bridging our way to democracy."
Kallel said when he lived in Tunisia, residents didn't have access to Facebook.
"You can't pass info around without being censored," Kallel told CNN's iReport.
Ghannouchi told Europe 1 that Tunisia is heading toward a new era in which freedom of the media -- including TV, internet and the press -- will be enforced.
"This is an essential measure that needs to be done," Ghannouchi said.
The unrest over the past several weeks was triggered in December when Mohamed Bouazizi, an unemployed college graduate, set himself ablaze after police confiscated the fruit cart that was his source of income. He died early this month.
Recent diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia, disclosed by the WikiLeaks website, revealed growing discontent with what Tunisians believed was widespread corruption and nepotism within Ben Ali's government.
Ghannouchi's 19-member Cabinet was to include three opposition leaders and 10 independents, he announced Monday. The new government will be tasked with leading Tunisia toward new elections, he said.
Beji said she was somewhat disappointed with the new government because "many of them are from the old government."
"There are a couple of oppositionists, but honestly, in Tunisia, it's known that the opposition is with the government," she said.
Among the holdovers is Ahmad Friaa, the interior minister.
Friaa, speaking on state TV, said 78 people have died in the clashes across several weeks, and 94 have been injured, among them many police officers. He urged people to stop riots and to work with police. Friaa vowed that those who should be held responsible for mistakes of the past will be punished.
He also said the cost of the turmoil of recent weeks is 3 billion Tunisian dinars (about $2 billion).
Friaa ended his speech saying, "Yes for democracy, yes freedom, no for chaos."
On Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a return to stability "as soon as possible."
Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Ban told reporters the new government should protect human rights and guarantee freedom of speech and association. But he said he remained "extremely concerned" about the ongoing clashes in the streets. On Monday, police fired tear gas into crowds of demonstrators in Tunis.
Over the weekend, Tunisia's army clashed with armed gangs and remnants of Ben Ali's personal guard. Police have arrested looters and as many as two dozen of the ousted president's relatives since Friday.
Experts say the kinds of protests seen in Tunisia could inspire similar actions, particularly by unemployed young people, in other Arab nations.
And more cases of men setting themselves on fire have been reported in Algeria, Egypt and Mauritania.
Beji said some of her friends in Tunisia who have college degrees are unemployed.
"I'm very optimistic about (employment) after this," she said. "I think more investors are going to start coming into the country. The country has a lot of potential."
Already, filters on websites such as YouTube -- put in place under Ben Ali -- were dropped, and internet speed picked up considerably -- a development that followed the new government's vow to ease restrictions on freedoms.
Beji said she hopes the next president will support freedoms for Tunisians -- especially after what regular citizens showed what they are capable of.
"I think the next president is going to be scared. The revolution happened with no arms, no guns, no nothing -- just people on the streets," she said. "I think the next president would be a little worried if he didn't give us freedom of any kind."