Friday 14 January 2011 -- After a dramatic 24 hours when Tunisia's dictator president Ben Ali first tried promising liberalisation and an end to police shootings of demonstrators and then, this evening at 16:00, declaring martial law, he has finally fallen from office. While the rumours are still swirling, one thing is clear, Ben Ali has left Tunisia and the army has stepped in. The comments after this article contain continuous updates of the uprising.
The day began with a mass demonstration called by Tunisia's trade union federation, the UGTT, in the capital Tunis. Between 10 and 15,000 people demonstrated outside the Ministry of the Interior. The initially peaceful scene broke down at around 14:30 local time as police moved in with tear gas and batons to disperse the crowd, some of whom had managed to scale the Ministry building and get on its roof. From then on, the city centre descended into chaos with running battles between the riot police and Tunisians of all ages and backgrounds fighting for the overthrow of the hated despot.
Finally, armoured cars from the army appeared on the street and a state of emergency and curfew was declared with Ben Ali threatening the populace that the security forces had carte blanche to open fire on any gatherings of more than three people. Soon, however, he disappeared from view and the rumours began to circulate. The army seized control of the airport and there were reports of convoys of limousines racing to the airport from the Ben Ali families palace. Finally the official announcement came. Ben Ali is gone. Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi appeared on state TV to announce that he was in charge of a caretaker government backed by the army.
Tonight the long-suffering people of Tunisia may rejoice that their last four weeks of heroic resistance has finally seen off the dictator who ran the most vicious police state in North Africa over them for the last 23 years.
But tomorrow morning will find the army in charge. What will happen tomorrow and the days to follow is anybody's guess. But the people now know that they have the power to overthrow a long-entrenched dictatorship, how much easier to take on a new unstable regime.
Report by Workers Solidarity Movement
Comments
Monday 28 December 2010 -- The BBC reports that, 'hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Tunis on Monday to demand jobs and an end to corruption. On Friday, one protester was shot dead during violent clashes in the central town of Menzel Bouzaiene.'
Al Jazeera report
Report (in Spanish and French) from CGT North Africa claiming there was a second death
Video from Euronews
(Edited for layout)
Someone lit himself on fire there as well.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/28/tunisia-ben-ali%3FCMP%3Dtwt_fd&h=ba93b
more here
Some more updates
Al Jazeera report - another protestor shot by police last week has died
Blog post with more videos of the protests
Comment on the media coverage - or lack of it
Updates on twitter
Report in the Guardian
There are now calls on twitter for a general strike on Monday.
Attempts to stop internet access
A new twist to Tunisian protests
Protests spread to Egypt
Fuck me, hadn't been able to give it a proper look coz of holidays but this is all really interesting stuff.. cheers..
'Passive' Tunisians shock region with unexpected protests
Tunisian government's web site is now down
Edit: report here
Reports on twitter that Mohamed Bouazizi, the unemployed Tunisian whose attempted suicide sparked the uprising, has now died in hospital. [Edit: report in French]
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Cairo protest on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Uhzmhdqks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLYny5d7xzc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7bammTd-Z0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3f85m12N_0
It seems that this is still going on along with other protests in Cairo against yesterday's bombing of a Coptic church in Alexandria.
Screenshot from the government website
Tunisia’s protest wave: where it comes from and what it means
The Tunisian paradigm shift: why Tunisians are changing the rules of the game
The Tunisian Intifada...
It's hard to make out what's happening in Tunisia today. Some reports on twitter of protests by school students, the government hacking people's facebook and email accounts, Tunisian stock exchange down.
Updates on twitter
Reports on twitter of clashes with police in the Tunisian towns of Kasserin, Tela, Sfax, Om Laarais. Video of protest by school students here. Denial of reports of death of Mohamed Bouazizi here. It isn't clear whether strikes took place or not.
Al Jazeera - Hackers hit Tunisian websites
Al Jazeera - Violent clashes continue in Tunisia
There's more on the protests by lawyers and calls for a strike and international day of action on Thursday in a report in Spanish from CGT North Africa.
Students protest in Tunisia, in spite of government attempts to block cyberspace
Cyber war breaks out in Tunisia
The lack of media coverage of the uprising actually seems quite strange, the main exceptions being reports from Al Jazeera and some coverage in France. The only coverage I can find from Britain today is a Guardian comment is free piece from a Tunisian islamist which includes the following:
The writer is the daughter of the leader of An Nahdha, a group that has been accused of involvement in terrorism, I don't know with what accuracy but see the comments under the Guardian article for more on this.
According to an article in the LA Times:
Callout in French for international day of solidarity, 6 January, signed by a long list of organisations, including the CNT-F
Students reignite Tunisian protest after brief lull
On twitter: 'Reports of 2 dead in Tala'. No other confirmation of this as yet.
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BBC - Anonymous activists target Tunisian government sites
Inspiring story of Tunisian protests ignored by Washington
CNN report on the protests
Interview with lawyer and women's rights activist on French radio
Tunisian hiphop - 'music of the revolution'
Al Jazeera report on the cyber war - in Arabic but translated transcript here
Thanks for all these updates!
Confirmed report that Mohammed Bouazizi has died
Tunisia: the battle for free speech
Tunisia: the middle east's first cyberwar
Internet censors move into top gear in response to widespread unrest
Tunisian government harvesting usernames and passwords
Tunisia invades, censors Facebook, other accounts
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This thread now comes up second on a google search for 'tunisia protests'. Unfortunately I think that's mainly a sign of the lack of media coverage of the uprising. And with the clampdown on the internet there seems to be very little new information coming out of the country.
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Photo just posted up on facebook, claimed to be from strike at lycée Med in Sfax
Funeral of Mohamed Bouazizi today - reports from bbc and al jazeera - video here - reports of copycat suicide attempts - reports of clashes between students and police in Sousse today - video from school students strike in Sfax here.
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Callout for general strike and international day of solidarity tomorrow (Thursday) with demo outside Tunisian embassy in London 5.30pm - 7.00pm. Reports on twitter that London demo will be televised by al jazeera.
Recently on twitter - Protesters marching in the streets near Tunis - The police forces used rubber bullets and tear gas against protested students in Sousse - Polices forces used Armored vehicle in Thala - The polices forces are robbing markets and destroying personal properties in Thala - The situation in Thala: the police forces started breaking in Civilians’ houses and arresting them randomly - Demo in Algiers, police already trying to break it - Algerian people take it to the streets tonight...angry riots covering over 10 cities across the country...
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Algeria tonight...
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Egyptian activists charged over Cairo demo
Although it doesn't say so here this demo was initially organised in solidarity with the protests in Tunisia.
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What's happening in Tunisia?
Report on today's riots in Algeria (in French)
thanks for the posts, Mark.
Really? I am pretty sure that they're all about the bombing in Alexandria; at least according to my contacts in Egypt.
Khawaga - I'm going off the ahramonline article I quoted above. I've also seen something else on this but I'm not sure I could find it again. This was only one small demo in Cairo though. As far as I know all the rest have just been about the bombing.
Edit: Found it...
Algerians follow example of Tunisia: street protests in Algiers and other parts of the country
Recently on twitter - Faculté fermé à Sousse, Sfax,Kaserine,sidibouzid,manif à Grombalia,Bizerte Béja,affrontement à Menzal bouziane - New protests in Bouhajla and Nasr’Allah in Kairouan Governorate - New clash in Jebeniana, and the institute of “18 January 1952” is Besieged by the police forces - A sit-in in Oum El Araies agenized by unemployment students and locally citizens on the Railway ores - Clash with police in Thala - New protests in Sousse and Sfax - The rap singer “El general” and a blogger are arrested today - The Tunisian Blogger "hammadi kaloutcha" was arrested today - All the institutes are closed in #sidibouzid and a new suicide threat in front of the government
CrowdVoice - Protests inTunisia