Tunis:
New battle lines appeared to take shape in traumatized Tunisia on Sunday as the military backed the nascent interim government in what state media portrayed as a fight against security forces loyal to ousted President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, blaming them for the violence and rioting that has engulfed the country since protests forced him from power 48 hours earlier.
State television reported that the military had arrested Mr. Ben Ali's former security chief, Ali Seriati, charging him with plotting against the government and inciting acts of violence. State television also said that a gunfight with Mr. Ben Ali's security forces broke out near a former presidential palace here in the capital, and that the military had called in reinforcements as it battled other security forces in the southern part of the country.
Mr. Ben Ali's nephew, Kais Ben Ali, was among another group arrested on suspicion of "shooting at random" from police cars, Agence France-Presse reported. And there were reports that Mr. Ben Ali's former interior minister, Rafiq Belhaj Kacem, had been arrested in his hometown for unspecified reasons.
The state news reports underscored the military's growing role in sustaining the interim civilian government, sometimes even against elements of the police force. It became clear on Sunday that the military had stepped forward to help calm the streets of the capital, displacing and controlling the gangs of newly deputized police officers who had sometimes terrorized residents the day before.
As virtually the only pillar of government left intact, the military now could play a pivotal role in determining whether a new autocrat or the first Arab democracy emerges from the tumult that brought down Mr. Ben Ali -- a question that has captivated the region.
But determining who was in control or who was fighting whom here is also growing increasingly difficult. It was unclear how much responsibility Mr. Ben Ali's loyalists bore for the chaos, or whether they were scapegoats. Many Tunisians, still seething at the flagrant corruption and brutal repression of Mr. Ben Ali's rule, have been insisting without evidence for days that any riots and looting were the work of his police officers.
Firefights around Bourguiba Boulevard and a tendency by the police to overreact illustrated the confusion. Around 3 p.m., a mob that included police officers swarmed over and arrested about a dozen Swedes after a search found weapons cases in their taxis; they were later determined to be a party of hunters in Tunisia to bag wild boar. Later, the police arrested four men carrying German passports, according to state television, on suspicion of firing shots at an opposition party headquarters, though no motive was provided.
And then a pair of unidentified gunmen fired from rooftops, sending the police, soldiers and residents scurrying for shelter. After nearly three hours of heavy gunfire between the gunmen and the police, gunmen in a military helicopter swooped down and killed them, state television reported. But neither the police nor the official news reports explained whether the dead pair were Ben Ali loyalists, renegade police officers or something else.
The protests have been fueled in large part by anger at the great fortunes amassed in recent years by members of the president's family as everyday Tunisians suffered soaring unemployment, and the rage evidently burned on after the family was gone.
Rioters ransacked several family mansions along with the Carthage headquarters of the president's ruling party. They set scores of cars on fire apparently just because they were sold at dealerships owned by the president's billionaire son-in-law.
Fouad Mebazaa, the speaker of Parliament and new interim president, and Mohamed Ghannouchi, the prime minister -- both close allies of Mr. Ben Ali from the ruling party -- met Sunday with opposition party leaders about forming a unity government. Communists and Islamic parties, banned from political participation under current Tunisian law, were excluded from the talks.
By late Sunday, Mr. Ghannouchi announced that he expected to present a new unity government on Monday. He is now expected to push the deadline for new elections back from 60 days to six months. And Tunisian analysts following the talks said Sunday night that the new government might ultimately allow the political participation of banned parties like the Islamists as well.
Speculation swirled about the role of Gen. Rachid Ammar, the country's top military official. He is believed to have guided recent events in the government, including helping to usher Mr. Ben Ali from the scene on Friday.
And Arab news organizations have reported, without confirmation, that General Ammar on Thursday had refused orders to shoot demonstrators, which would make him a hero to the Tunisian people. The military did withdraw from the capital on Thursday afternoon, ceding control to the police and internal security forces during the final clashes of Mr. Ben Ali's flight, making such reports plausible.
The Tunisian military, however, is a smaller, less political and more professional force than most others in the region, used mainly for emergency relief and such civil functions because Tunisia's borders are peaceful. And General Ammar's absence from public appearances on Sunday stirred hope that he intended to stay out of the new civilian government. "He could have taken over since the beginning if he wanted," said Mourad Teyeb, a political analyst who also works for the independent newspaper Assabah.
Still, a Facebook page titled "General Rachid Ammar President" suggested that some, possibly including the general, may have other ideas.
Tunisians in the capital, meanwhile, lined up outside the few stores that re-opened on Sunday, desperate for bread and other staples. Tanks and heavily armored soldiers and police officers filled the streets, along with makeshift barricades erected by citizens in residential neighborhoods who formed ad hoc brigades to protect against rioters and looters.
There were conflicting reports about the condition of a French photojournalist, identified as Lucas Mebrouk Dolega, who worked for the European Pressphoto Agency. Its chief executive said in a statement that Mr. Dolega had died after a tear gas canister hit him in the head in rioting on Friday. But witnesses and colleagues said he remained in critical condition at a hospital.
By Sunday morning, the bursts of gunfire around the capital were less frequent. Cars began returning to city's streets. Commuter trains were running. The airport had reopened and pedestrians once again ventured out. The government relaxed the nighttime curfew by one hour, to 6 p.m.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the Tunisian foreign minister, Kamel Morjane. She urged the new government to address popular concerns about economic opportunities, civil liberties and democratic elections, the State Department said in a statement.
Former opposition figures exiled during Mr. Ben Ali's rule -- most notably the leaders of the once-thriving Islamic political party here -- raced to return home in the hopes of re-establishing their movements. Though Tunisia is far more secular and socially liberal than its neighbors, some here said they believed that the right brand of Islamic politics -- tempered with tolerance -- could strike a chord with large sections of the population.
So far, no politician can claim any positive mandate from the so-called Jasmine Revolution that brought down Mr. Ben Ali. Protesters articulated almost no political demands aside from an end to the corruption linked to his family. There were scant mentions of any social program or civil liberties.
"What happened in Tunisia -- we can call it a revolution -- has nothing to do with politics or ideology," Mr. Teyeb said. "Politicians are opportunists, so now they will jump on the opportunity."
He said his newspaper had been taken over in recent years by Mohamed Sakher el-Materi, Mr. Ben Ali's billionaire son-in-law. But Mr. Materi has now fled, and on Sunday, Mr. Teyeb said, the paper's journalists confronted their editor in chief.
"We, the journalists, fired him," Mr. Teyeb said. "We had our own revolution."
State television reported that the military had arrested Mr. Ben Ali's former security chief, Ali Seriati, charging him with plotting against the government and inciting acts of violence. State television also said that a gunfight with Mr. Ben Ali's security forces broke out near a former presidential palace here in the capital, and that the military had called in reinforcements as it battled other security forces in the southern part of the country.
Mr. Ben Ali's nephew, Kais Ben Ali, was among another group arrested on suspicion of "shooting at random" from police cars, Agence France-Presse reported. And there were reports that Mr. Ben Ali's former interior minister, Rafiq Belhaj Kacem, had been arrested in his hometown for unspecified reasons.
The state news reports underscored the military's growing role in sustaining the interim civilian government, sometimes even against elements of the police force. It became clear on Sunday that the military had stepped forward to help calm the streets of the capital, displacing and controlling the gangs of newly deputized police officers who had sometimes terrorized residents the day before.
As virtually the only pillar of government left intact, the military now could play a pivotal role in determining whether a new autocrat or the first Arab democracy emerges from the tumult that brought down Mr. Ben Ali -- a question that has captivated the region.
But determining who was in control or who was fighting whom here is also growing increasingly difficult. It was unclear how much responsibility Mr. Ben Ali's loyalists bore for the chaos, or whether they were scapegoats. Many Tunisians, still seething at the flagrant corruption and brutal repression of Mr. Ben Ali's rule, have been insisting without evidence for days that any riots and looting were the work of his police officers.
Firefights around Bourguiba Boulevard and a tendency by the police to overreact illustrated the confusion. Around 3 p.m., a mob that included police officers swarmed over and arrested about a dozen Swedes after a search found weapons cases in their taxis; they were later determined to be a party of hunters in Tunisia to bag wild boar. Later, the police arrested four men carrying German passports, according to state television, on suspicion of firing shots at an opposition party headquarters, though no motive was provided.
And then a pair of unidentified gunmen fired from rooftops, sending the police, soldiers and residents scurrying for shelter. After nearly three hours of heavy gunfire between the gunmen and the police, gunmen in a military helicopter swooped down and killed them, state television reported. But neither the police nor the official news reports explained whether the dead pair were Ben Ali loyalists, renegade police officers or something else.
The protests have been fueled in large part by anger at the great fortunes amassed in recent years by members of the president's family as everyday Tunisians suffered soaring unemployment, and the rage evidently burned on after the family was gone.
Rioters ransacked several family mansions along with the Carthage headquarters of the president's ruling party. They set scores of cars on fire apparently just because they were sold at dealerships owned by the president's billionaire son-in-law.
Fouad Mebazaa, the speaker of Parliament and new interim president, and Mohamed Ghannouchi, the prime minister -- both close allies of Mr. Ben Ali from the ruling party -- met Sunday with opposition party leaders about forming a unity government. Communists and Islamic parties, banned from political participation under current Tunisian law, were excluded from the talks.
By late Sunday, Mr. Ghannouchi announced that he expected to present a new unity government on Monday. He is now expected to push the deadline for new elections back from 60 days to six months. And Tunisian analysts following the talks said Sunday night that the new government might ultimately allow the political participation of banned parties like the Islamists as well.
Speculation swirled about the role of Gen. Rachid Ammar, the country's top military official. He is believed to have guided recent events in the government, including helping to usher Mr. Ben Ali from the scene on Friday.
And Arab news organizations have reported, without confirmation, that General Ammar on Thursday had refused orders to shoot demonstrators, which would make him a hero to the Tunisian people. The military did withdraw from the capital on Thursday afternoon, ceding control to the police and internal security forces during the final clashes of Mr. Ben Ali's flight, making such reports plausible.
The Tunisian military, however, is a smaller, less political and more professional force than most others in the region, used mainly for emergency relief and such civil functions because Tunisia's borders are peaceful. And General Ammar's absence from public appearances on Sunday stirred hope that he intended to stay out of the new civilian government. "He could have taken over since the beginning if he wanted," said Mourad Teyeb, a political analyst who also works for the independent newspaper Assabah.
Still, a Facebook page titled "General Rachid Ammar President" suggested that some, possibly including the general, may have other ideas.
Tunisians in the capital, meanwhile, lined up outside the few stores that re-opened on Sunday, desperate for bread and other staples. Tanks and heavily armored soldiers and police officers filled the streets, along with makeshift barricades erected by citizens in residential neighborhoods who formed ad hoc brigades to protect against rioters and looters.
There were conflicting reports about the condition of a French photojournalist, identified as Lucas Mebrouk Dolega, who worked for the European Pressphoto Agency. Its chief executive said in a statement that Mr. Dolega had died after a tear gas canister hit him in the head in rioting on Friday. But witnesses and colleagues said he remained in critical condition at a hospital.
By Sunday morning, the bursts of gunfire around the capital were less frequent. Cars began returning to city's streets. Commuter trains were running. The airport had reopened and pedestrians once again ventured out. The government relaxed the nighttime curfew by one hour, to 6 p.m.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the Tunisian foreign minister, Kamel Morjane. She urged the new government to address popular concerns about economic opportunities, civil liberties and democratic elections, the State Department said in a statement.
Former opposition figures exiled during Mr. Ben Ali's rule -- most notably the leaders of the once-thriving Islamic political party here -- raced to return home in the hopes of re-establishing their movements. Though Tunisia is far more secular and socially liberal than its neighbors, some here said they believed that the right brand of Islamic politics -- tempered with tolerance -- could strike a chord with large sections of the population.
So far, no politician can claim any positive mandate from the so-called Jasmine Revolution that brought down Mr. Ben Ali. Protesters articulated almost no political demands aside from an end to the corruption linked to his family. There were scant mentions of any social program or civil liberties.
"What happened in Tunisia -- we can call it a revolution -- has nothing to do with politics or ideology," Mr. Teyeb said. "Politicians are opportunists, so now they will jump on the opportunity."
He said his newspaper had been taken over in recent years by Mohamed Sakher el-Materi, Mr. Ben Ali's billionaire son-in-law. But Mr. Materi has now fled, and on Sunday, Mr. Teyeb said, the paper's journalists confronted their editor in chief.
"We, the journalists, fired him," Mr. Teyeb said. "We had our own revolution."
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