An update to my post earlier today. Tunisia's constitutional council
has now decided that the chairman of parliament, Fouad Mebazaa, should be acting president – and not prime minister Mohamed Ghannouchi.
The council says that Article 57 of the constitution, rather than...
Blog archive: Tunisia
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15th January 2011
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15th January 2011IMPORTANT: See update After fleeing Tunisia yesterday, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali made a circuitous journey around the Mediterranean. His plane first headed south to Libya, then north towards Paris where he was apparently told he would not be welcome. After a reported...
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14th January 2011In due course, every city of consequence in Tunisia will have a street or square named after Mohamed Bouazizi, the unemployed fruit-seller whose humiliation at the hands of the authorities led to a revolution. It's sad that he didn't live to see it but today's events are a fitting tribute. It is...
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14th January 2011A Tunisian officer salutes the funeral of one of the protests' victims. Bizerte, Thursday. Source: nawaat. In his speech to Tunisians last night, President Ben Ali went for double or quits. Either he has done enough to quell the protests with his offers to stand down in...
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13th January 2011Today is exactly four weeks since the start of the Tunisian uprising and I was planning to write another summary of the day's main events. But, honestly, I can't. There's so much going on, so much chaos. Let me just point to two things which, basically, say it all. One was the demonstration...
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12th January 2011The regime is clinging on and making some minor concessions which are probably far too late. The security crackdown is obviously placing huge demands on the police and military. In a trial of strength, can the protesters stretch them to breaking point? Maybe the endgame is approaching but the big...
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11th January 2011A brief summary of reported events in Tunisia on Tuesday: Latest videos: Police attack demonstrators outside union building in Sfax; early morning incident in the centre of Bizerte; protest in Ben Guerdane. Tunisian stock market falls again, to...
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11th January 2011The Tunisian regime was fighting for survival yesterday. Reports and videos of clashes between police and demonstrators circulated on the internet throughout the day – so many that it became difficult to keep track. In some of them civilians were shot and killed – though at this stage...
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10th January 2011The Tunisian uprising is beginning to get more coverage in the English-language media, so this may be a suitable moment to look at the sort of coverage it is getting. Considering the horrific violence meted out by the police over the weekend, the Ben Ali regime is being given an...
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10th January 2011[This is a Google-assisted translation of the French version posted on the Tunisie7 website.] Citizens, citizens, I am addressing you today, inside and outside the country, following disturbances and acts of violence and degradation that have targeted public and private property in some...
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9th January 2011The Tunisian regime has responded to American calls for restraint... with live bullets. A number of protesters were shot dead last night – possibly 10 or more. Most reports attribute the shootings to the police, though the army has now been deployed some areas – allegedly to protect...
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9th January 2011A quick update. Al-Jazeera and AFP are reporting that at least 20 people have died in the clashes in two Tunisian cities during the last 24 hours. Citing trade union sources, al-Jazeera says six were killed in Thala and a further 14 elsewhere in the Kasserine region...
