Friday, March 18, 2011

TUNIS: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged Thursday to help Tunisia create jobs and undertake reforms to keep the momentum behind the popular uprising that overthrew its autocratic president two months ago.

The chief U.S. diplomat held talks with interim President Foued Mebazaa, who replaced the ousted Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, after saying that an international donors conference would help to focus minds on Tunisia’s needs.
New government officials and other Tunisians understand “we need a plan for economic development, for jobs,” Clinton told reporters during a tour of Tunisian Red Crescent offices.

“There’s going to be a donors conference that will be held in some months. I’m going to be sending a delegation from the United States,” said Clinton, who arrived Wednesday in Tunis as the most senior U.S. official to visit since Ben Ali’s ouster on Jan. 14.

“So we want to know what Tunisia wants … We want to work on plans … a plan for health, we want to help do what we can to have a plan for jobs,” she said.
“The revolution created so many hopes and now we have to translate those hopes into results and that comes through economic reform and political reform,” she told Tunisian reporters.

Unemployment was a major factor in the political unrest that erupted in Tunisia in December.
But hundreds of Tunisians marched through central Tunis Thursday to protest her visit, the third such demonstration in three days.

They chanted “Hillary Clinton, you are not welcome, get out,” “No colonization after the revolution,” or “No to U.S. tutelage on Islamic soil,” as they warned against any U.S. intervention in neighboring Libya.
At the Red Crescent center, she told aid workers “how impressed the world is by Tunisia’s remarkable humanitarian response to the crisis on your border.”

More than 100,000 people, including many African migrants, have crossed into Tunisia from Libya since the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi started last month.
“We know you are stretched and you have really stepped up and performed,” Clinton added.

“Yet we also know that Tunisia has its own humanitarian needs right now and we want to be sure that we help you meet both humanitarian needs on the border and humanitarian needs inside Tunisia,” she said.
Apart from Mebazza, Clinton conferred with Foreign Minister Mouldi Kefi and interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi.
In a speech after her meeting with Kefi, Clinton praised the Tunisian people’s fight for democracy.

“You have shown the world that peaceful change is possible. The United States stood with Tunisia during your independence and now we will stand with you as you make the transition to democracy, and prosperity and a better future,” she said.

Clinton said Tunisian civil society groups would receive technology and know-how from Microsoft Corporation, including refurbished computers, software, training, or help linking up with other groups working in the same fields.
And she offered U.S. assistance to those who will draft Tunisia’s new constitution following elections for a constituent assembly slated for July.

Clinton said she would also push for $20 million for Tunisia to “respond to some of their needs” after Tunisian officials clamored for U.S. help, but hinted at more aid.
“We need to have a very big commitment to Tunisia, that we can be ready to help them economically as well as with their democratic transformation,” said the secretary. – AFP, Reuters