FRI 29 - 3 - 2024
 
Date: Jul 20, 2011
Source: The Daily Star
Tunisia’s main Islamist party Ennahda denies it is behind recent riots throughout country

TUNIS: The leader of Tunisia’s main Islamist political party Tuesday denied any responsibility for the wave of violent protests in the capital and other cities in recent days.
Violence in Tunis and elsewhere, seen by the government as the work of Islamist youths, has claimed the life of one teenaged boy and shaken the country six months after the revolution that toppled Tunisia’s autocratic president.


Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the Islamist Ennahda party, said he had not called for any demonstrations, including one in Tunis Friday when police angered Muslims by firing tear gas into a mosque.
Prime Minister Beji Caid Sebsi Monday blamed religious extremist parties for the violence, although he did not name any political party.


Ghannouchi said he believed there were attempts to discredit the Islamist movement in Tunisia.
“We feel that there are attempts to provoke the Muslim youth and induce them to violence, possibly aimed at postponing the elections,” he told a news conference.


Tunisia is due to hold elections Oct. 23 for a body charged with drawing up a new constitution.
“I appeal to the religious youth and all youths in Tunisia to stay away from violence,” he said.
He also criticized what he called police brutality during demonstrations, which erupted in central Tunis Friday and spread to other locations, had been suppressed.
Ghannouchi said police had stormed the mosque in the town of Menzel Bourguiba, about 70 km north of Tunis, with dogs to arrest people.


Tunisia’s main opposition party, the Progressive Democratic Party, also appealed for calm Tuesday and urged “democratic forces” in Tunisia to resist attempts to destabilize the country.
“The PDP is determined to save the electoral process in Tunisia and calls on all democratic forces to resist attempts to destabilize it,” PDP founder Ahmad Nejib Chebbi told a news conference.


“Some [groups] are trying to destabilize the country and want to break up the process leading to peaceful elections,” said PDP general secretary Maya Jribi, without naming them directly.
The rioting is the clearest sign to date of the friction between Tunisia’s secular establishment and Islamists who have been growing more assertive since the country’s “Jasmine Revolution” in January.


Amnesty International said the first victim of the latest riots was a 13-year-old boy called Thabet al-Hajlaoui and demanded that the authorities launch an independent and impartial investigation into his death.
“The security forces must answer for this tragic death. The firing of live ammunition against Sunday’s protesters in Sidi Bouzid is a stark reminder of the methods used against protesters under Ben Ali,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director at Amnesty International.


Elsewhere, a pipeline that delivers gas from Algeria to Italy via Tunisia was hit by two explosions in northern Tunisia Monday but is still functioning, the Tunisian Interior Ministry said.
The attack on the pipeline, caused by explosive devices, was most likely an act of sabotage, a ministry spokesman said, without indicating who might be responsible.
The pipeline, which was attacked near the town of Zaghouan, south of Tunis, was still functioning normally, the spokesman said.


“This act of sabotage … did not cause any significant human or material damage,” a ministry source said.
A spokesman for Italian oil company Eni said, “Eni confirms gas flows as normal.”
An official in Algeria’s energy sector, who did not want to be identified, said, “The pipeline is functioning as normal and we have not been notified of any incident.”



 
Readers Comments (0)
Add your comment

Enter the security code below*

 Can't read this? Try Another.
 
Related News
Tunisair workers to strike on Friday, union says
Tunisia PM designate to form technocratic govt without parties
Tunisians emerge from lockdown into mosques and cafes
Tunisians protest over jobs amid economic downturn
Hundreds of Tunisians blocked by virus on Libya border crossing
Related Articles
Crime, excessive punishment in Tunisia
How President Béji Caid Essebsi Helped Build Tunisia's Democracy
Can Tunisia’s democracy survive the turmoil?
Tunisian politics between crisis and normalization
A community approach to militants’ rehab in Tunisia
Copyright 2024 . All rights reserved