Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Europe’s foreign ministers froze the assets of ousted Tunisian leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his wife in response to a request from the Tunisian authorities while the national unity government was sworn in Monday.
The sanctions against Ben Ali and Leila Trabelsi were decided at a meeting of the European Union’s 27 ministers, diplomatic sources said.

Several dozen associates of the deposed leader, listed by the new authorities in Tunis, may face similar sanctions in the following days, diplomatic sources added.

“In consultation with the Tunisian authorities, the council has adopted restrictive measures against individuals responsible for misappropriation of state funds,” a ministers’ statement said.

Tunisia’s former leading couple and their inner circle are suspected of having pocketed much of the country’s wealth over years and of taking personal stakes in much of the economy.

The EU, the ministers added, “pays tribute to the courage and determination of the Tunisian people and their peaceful struggle to assert their rights and democratic aspirations.”

The bloc, they said, will resume talks begun under the Ben Ali regime in May 2010 to offer Tunisia a special status in its ties with the EU enabling tariff cuts to boost trade and better cooperation with the union.

An EU mission flew to Tunis Monday to assess the situation on the ground and the country’s new foreign minister Ahmad Abdel-Raouf Ounais is due in Brussels Wednesday for talks.

Welcoming Tunisia’s pledge to hold elections as soon as possible, ministers offered political as well as technical support in preparing and organizing the polls.

The EU, the statement added “is also ready to mobilize every instrument at its disposal to help ease the passage of political, economic and social reform.”

In Tunisia meanwhile, hundreds ransacked and looted a regional government office in the central town of Kasserine, scene of recent demonstrations, labor official Choukri Hayouni told AFP from Kasserine.
Another official, Sadok Mahmoudi, said the looters made off with furniture, computers, crockery and even window fittings.

The officials, members of the powerful General Union of Tunisian Workers, alleged the assailants were led by members of the former RCD ruling party of ousted strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali but there was no confirmation from other sources. “These gangs are led by the RCD, which supplied them with knives,” said Mahmoudi.

And Hayouni said four youths arrested by local residents as they looted a doctor’s office confessed they had been paid by “RCD officials to stir trouble.”

The union officials also said that army troops were present but did not intervene to stop the looting.
Hayouni said all schools, shops and public buildings were closed in Kasserine Monday after a leaflet calling for a general strike circulated in the town the previous day.

State news agency TAP meanwhile said “bandits” attacked a youth center and a high school as well as the sub-prefecture in Kasserine. – Agencies