Revolution in Tunisia. Which Arab country will be next? Egypt?

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

am happy at the fate of that useless autocrat but whats next, history is filled with middle eastern revolutions ending in disasters like hamas, hisbullah, talibans and ahmdinijads....the proverb careful what you wish for comes to mind

[Jacaylbaro]

The Zack;687605 wrote:

what is in it for you? Didn't know inaad xarash u heysid Tunisia or Carabta overall.

 

Carabtu kuwii Sayidku ka gabyay sow maaha ?? ,,,,,,,,,,

[Gabbal]

Remarkable feat in collapsing a government peacefully and a warning to the Arab world. The Arab street is getting ready to be heard.

[Peace Action]

Tunisia swears in interim leader

 

Parliament speaker assumes power a day after Zine El Abidine Ben Ali flees the country amid a mass uprising.

Last Modified: 15 Jan 2011 14:55 GMT

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Ben Ali fled amid violent demonstrations and protesters who rejected his last-minute concessions [AFP]

 

Tunisia's speaker of parliament has temporarily assumed power in the country a day after president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled amid a mass uprising.

 

The country's constitutional court, the highest legal authority on constitutional issues, announced the transition on Saturday, saying Fouad Mebazaa had been appointed interim president.

 

Mebazaa took the oath in his office in parliament, swearing to respect the constitution in the presence of his senate counterpart Abdallal Kallel and representatives of both houses.

 

He now has up to 60 days to organise new presidential elections under the Tunisian constitution, Fethi Abdennadher, the head of the court, said.

 

"The Constitutional Council announces that the post of president is definitively vacant," Abdennadher said in an address on state television.

 

"We should refer to article 57 of the constitution, which states that the speaker of parliament occupies the post of president temporarily and calls for elections within a period of between 45 and 60 days."

 

Constitutional confusion

 

Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia on Friday, had delegated prime minister Mohamed Ghannouchi to act as head of state before leaving the country.

 

In an interview later with Al Jazeera, Ghannouchi said that because the current circumstances did not allow for Ben Ali's return to Tunisia, he would act as the president until elections could be held.

 

 

Follow Al Jazeera's complete coverage

 

But the court negated that decision with its ruling on Saturday, saying the president had left the position for good.

 

The political manoeuvring continued on Saturday, as Ghannouchi accepted a proposal from opposition parties to form a coalition government, opposition leaders said.

 

"We discussed the idea of a coalition government and the prime minister accepted our request to have a coalition government," Mustafa Ben Jaafar, leader of the Union of Freedom and Labour party, told the Reuters news agency.

 

"Tomorrow there will be another meeting with the aim of getting the country out of this situation and to have real reforms. The results of these discussions will be announced tomorrow."

 

Ben Ali, who has ruled Tunisia since coming to power in a bloodless coup in 1987, fled the North African country on Friday after protesters rejected his last-minute raft of concessions aimed at bringing several weeks of violent demonstrations to an end.

 

Saudi Arabia confirmed on Saturday that he and his family had been welcomed into the kingdom due to "exceptional circumstances" in Tunisia.

 

'Unwelcome' in France

 

Initially, it was rumoured that Ben Ali was en route to Paris, but Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland, reporting from the French capital, said Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, had refused to welcome the president following crisis negotiations with his prime minister.

 

"Although during his years in power Ben Ali had acted in French and western European interests in terms of cracking down on anything resembling radical Islam and also his fight to control illegal migration from Africa," she said.

 

"He probably thought those policies would win him refuge in France, but Sarkozy [considered the] large North African community in France, including a large number of Tunisians, most of them opponents of Ben Ali.

 

"Sarkozy has difficult relations with the North African citizens in France. He figured that to allow Ben Ali to come to Paris would have exacerbated those relations would have provoked outrage among Tunisians in Paris."

 

The unrest in Tunisia began on December 17, after a 26-year-old unemployed graduate set himself on fire in an attempt to commit suicide.

 

Mohammed Bousazizi's act of desperation set off the public's growing frustration with rising inflation, unemployment, and corruption and prompted a wave of protests across the country.

 

 

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

[Peace Action]

1st intem president, the PM Ghanoushi was replace by PM Leader as the constitution stipulates. Now there will be elections in 45-60 days. We wish the best for Tunisia in holding free and fair elections.

[Taleexi]

Go Jasmine Revolution Go!

[Peace Action]

TUNIS, Tunisia (CNN) -- Are jackboots already trampling the "Jasmine Revolution"?

 

It happened with breathtaking speed. Within a matter of weeks, Tunisia went from being a beacon of authoritarian, pro-Western stability to a country in open, nationwide revolt. A largely leaderless, spontaneous popular movement drove the head of state from power.

 

At the moment it's not clear whether that movement will result in real change, or just a change at the top.

 

Shortly after Friday's massive demonstrations in Tunis, which reached a crescendo outside the hated Ministry of the Interior on Avenue Mohamed V, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country, taking refuge in Saudi Arabia.

 

 

 

The day after the president left

 

What's provoked the crisis in Tunisia?

 

 

The army and security forces are trying to impose order in Tunis. Tanks and armored personnel carriers have been deployed on one of the capital's main thoroughfares, Avenue 7 Novembre (named after the date when Ben Ali assumed presidential powers in 1987). At midday Saturday I watched as two truckloads of soldiers pulled up on the avenue and began stringing out barbed wire.

 

A dusk-to-dawn curfew is being ruthlessly enforced. Just how ruthlessly I saw from my hotel window. At midnight I watched as plain-clothed policemen beat with batons and kicked a young man to the ground. All the while be screamed, "Have mercy on me!"

 

This afternoon the front desk called to tell me to close my window on orders of the police.

 

In the Place de l'Independence, I watched municipal workers taking down a large poster of Ben Ali. There was no cheering, no celebration. The few people in the square appeared more concerned with getting home before the curfew began.

 

The feel is very much that of a military takeover. It's hard to catch a whiff of what is being called the Jasmine Revolution.

 

Mounting fear of chaos is diluting the unbridled joy inspired by Ben Ali's departure. Fires have broken out in prisons in Muntasir and Al-Mahdia. There are reports of gangs on looting sprees.

 

Tunisian television has discontinued regular programming, replaced with a call-in program. The prime concern of callers from around the country is that law and order are breaking down.

 

On back streets in the center of Tunis, away from the soldiers and plain-clothed police, people are still seething with anger at Ben Ali. They complain of rampant corruption and nepotism by him and his clique, of deteriorating economic conditions, rising prices, high unemployment and a lack of job opportunities for university graduates.

 

Everything they complain about plagues many other Arab countries. In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak has been in power since 1981. But he's a relative newcomer compared to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, at the helm since 1969. In Yemen, Ali Abdallah Saleh has ruled since 1979.

 

All of these aging autocrats must be pacing the floors of their palaces worrying the unrest in Tunisia will spread. Conditions in countries like Egypt are, if anything, far worse than in Tunisia. In Egypt, for example, it's estimated that 40 percent of the population has to get by on less than $2 a day. Unemployment is rampant, high-level corruption a given.

 

In the spring of 2008, thousands of Egyptians took to the streets to demonstrate against spiraling food prices. In the Nile Delta city of Kafr Al-Shaikh, protesters burned huge posters of Mubarak.

 

Ever so briefly it appeared his regime was beginning to totter, but then it passed. The government announced wage increases, scrambled to ensure a supply of subsidized bread for the poor, and rounded up the troublemakers one by one.

 

Middle Eastern rulers are masters at outsmarting their opponents and quashing protest. They're far less skilled when it comes to addressing the problems that plague their people.

 

Those autocrats are almost certainly rooting for the Tunisian army and intelligence services to re-establish calm and control. In much of the Middle East, the rulers depend upon the support of the army and intelligence services. When the secretive, low-profile generals and spooks decide the leader is more a liability than an asset, they send him packing.

 

Revolution, real revolution resulting in an overthrow of the existing order along the lines of 1979 Iran, is far less probable.

 

The Jasmine Revolution, which inspired so many angry and frustrated people across the Arab world, is already in danger of being trampled by jackboots.

[Peace Action]

Libya leader regrets Ben Ali's fall

 

Muammar Gaddafi laments ousted president's departure saying it has left Tunisia in "chaos with no end in sight".

 

Gaddafi regards Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's as the rightful president of Tunisia under the constitution

 

 

Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, has said he regrets the fall of Tunisia's president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, which has left the country in "chaos with no end in sight."

 

"You have suffered a great loss ... There is none better than Zine [El Abidine Ben Ali] to govern Tunisia," he said in a speech broadcast on state radio and television on Saturday.

 

"I do not only hope that he stays until 2014, but for life," he said, stressing that he considered Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia on Friday, still to be the "legal president of Tunisia under the constitution."

 

He said Ben Ali did good things for Tunisia, hailing his handling of the country's economy.

 

"Tunisia, a developed country that is a tourist destination, is becoming prey to hooded gangs, to thefts and fire," he said.

 

'Victims of lies'

 

Gaddafi said the Tunisian people were the "victims of lies" broadcast on the internet which had played a large part in Ben Ali's ouster, adding that Tunisia was suffering bloodshed and lawlessness because its people were in too much of a rush to get rid of their president.

 

"Tunisia now lives in fear ... families could be raided and slaughtered in their bedrooms and the citizens in the street killed as if it was the Bolshevik or the American revolution," Gaddafi said.

 

"And for what? In order for someone to become president instead of Ben Ali?" he added.

 

"I do not know these new people, but we all knew Ben Ali and the transformation that was achieved in Tunisia. Why are you destroying all of that?" he asked.

[Jacaylbaro]

Arabs need to learn ....

[wyre]

زوجة بن علي هرّبت 1.5 طنا ذهبا

أفادت مصادر فرنسية بأن عائلة الرئيس المخلوع زين العابدين بن علي فرت من تونس حاملة معها طنا ونصف الطن من الذهب، وهو ما تفترضه المخابرات الفرنسية، التي تحاول فهم أسرار يوم الجمعة 14 يناير/كانون الثاني، الذى شهد رحيل الرئيس وأسرته وسقوط نظامه.

 

وحسب المعلومات التي جمعت في تونس فإن ليلى الطرابلسي زوجة الرئيس المخلوع ذهبت إلى البنك المركزي لأخذ سبائك من الذهب، لكن محافظه رفض ذلك، فاتصلت بزوجها بن علي، الذي رفض الأمر في البداية أيضا، قبل أن يوافق لاحقا، وتوجهت ليلى إثر ذلك إلى دبي.

 

وحسب المعطيات التي نقلتها صحيفة لوموند الفرنسية عن مسؤول فرنسي، يبدو أن ليلى الطرابلسي حملت معها طنا ونصف الطن من الذهب، بقيمة تبلغ 45 مليون يورو (60 مليون دولار).

 

من جهة أخرى قالت الصحيفة وفقا للمصدر الفرنسي أن زين العابدين بن علي لم يكن يتوقع سقوطه بتلك السرعة، مستشهدة بأنه سجل خطابا جديدا لم يتح له الوقت ليظهر، وهو ما يؤكد أنه لم يغادر البلاد طوعا، ولكن تم خلعه من منصبه.

 

قصة الهروب

ووفقا لأجهزة الاستخبارات الأوروبية فإن الجيش ورئيس هيئة أركانه رشيد عمار -الذي رفض إطلاق النار على الحشود المتظاهرة- لعب دورا قياديا في التخلص من زين العابدين بن علي.

 

وحسب لوموند فإن الطريقة التي تمكن من خلالها بن علي من مغادرة البلاد غير واضحة، ويعتقد العديد من السفارات الأوروبية أن الأجهزة الأمنية الليبية لعبت دورا مهما في تهريب بن علي، ويعزز كلام الزعيم الليبي معمر القذافي -الذي قال إنه يأسف لنتائج الأزمة التونسية- هذا الشعور خاصة لدى باريس.

 

وتبقى طريقة رحيل الرئيس المخلوع أيضا محل شكوك، ويبدو أن بن علي قد وجد نفسه في المجال الجوي لمالطا، من دون وجود خطة للطيران، كما لم يكن لديه وجهة محددة في رحيله المتسرع من تونس.

 

وقال مصدر إيطالي إن الطائرة لم تحصل على إذن بالهبوط في جزيرة مالطا، ووفقا لفرضية أخرى غادر الرئيس المخلوع تونس على متن مروحية لجزيرة مالطا، حيث وجد طائرته هناك.

 

من جانبها أرادت باريس منع وصول بن علي إلى فرنسا، وقال مصدر وزاري فرنسي إن المديرية العامة للطيران المدني تلقت طلبا بتحديد مسار بين تونس وباريس، لكن السلطات الفرنسية طلبت أن تحط الطائرة في جزيرة سردينيا.

 

وبعد هبوط الطائرة في الجزيرة والتحقق منها، لم يكن فيها أي راكب، ولم يكن على متنها زين العابدين بن علي في كل الأحول، وهو الذي نزل بعد ذلك في جدة بالمملكة العربية السعودية.

http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/17908956-C182-4C5B-886E-2F9AF833B8AE.htm?GoogleStatID=1

could not find in English sorry

[NGONGE]

Finally they heard Abu Al Qasim Al Shabbi's words.

We were driven mad in school having to memorise his poem about revolutions. For Abu Al Qasim, as luck would have it, was a Tunisian poet. His most famous poem began with the words:

 

اذا الشعب يوما اراد الحياه

فلا بد ان يستجيب القدر

 

If the people will to live

Providence is destined to favourably respond

And night is destined to fold

And the chains are certain to be broken

And he who has not embraced the love of life

Will evaporate in its atmosphere and disappear.

 

How fitting are those words to today's events in that country and how sad that it took a man burning himself to get the people to finally say "enough is enough".

 

In other news, I heard that our Marx, upset at the SL governments decision to increase staff salaries by 100% (he wanted it to be 300%) attempted to light himself up in one of Hargeisa's popular squares but quickly doused himself off when the people starting running away and shouting "Al Shabab..Al Shabab".

[Kamaavi]

News black out in Ethiopia about Tunisia revolution

 

January 17th, 2011 | | 8 Comments

 

By Elias Kifle

 

After being tipped by a reader about Tunisia revolution news blackout in Ethiopia, I started to browse news web sites that are affiliated with and owned by the ruling party, Woyanne. It turns out that none of them are covering the Tunisia Jasmine Revolution (some call it Facebook Revolution), which is getting a worldwide media coverage. Independent Ethiopian media are also extensively reporting about the situation in the north African nation of Tunisia and discussing their relations and similarities with conditions in Ethiopia.

 

The Meles regime has apparently imposed a news black out on Tunisia revolution fearing that it will give ideas to Ethiopians who are facing much more dire conditions in their own country. Yesterday, Ethiopian Review has presented the following top 10 similarities between the deposed dictator in Tunisia and the current dictator in Ethiopia, as well as their respective ruling parties:

 

1. The president, Zin el-Abidine Ben Ali, had been in power for 23 years. Meles has been in power for 20 years.

 

2. Like Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, Ben Ali was known to conduct fake elections. In a recent poll, he won by 83 percent. Meles won by 96 percent.

 

3. Ben Ali arrested opposition politicians, and attacked opposition parties, denying them space in the country’s politics. Meles is doing the same thing in a larger scale.

 

4. Ben Ali’s party, RCD, was involved in nepotism and massive corruption, like Meles Zenawi’s TPLF.

 

5. Tunisia’s ruling RCD favors one ethnic group, the Trabelsi clan, over other Tunisian clans. TPLF favors the Tigray region over other regions of Ethiopia.

 

6. Ben Ali had curtailed freedom of speech and press. Similarly in Ethiopia, opposition media, including web sites, are banned. “Although officially denying any intention to meddle with the Internet, the government exercises censorship in practice. The OpenNet Initiative, a collaboration between several universities, found that 10 percent of the 2,000 Web sites it tested in the country were blocked.” – CPJ

 

7. Like Meles, Ben Ali has forced many of his opponents out of the country.

 

8. RCD bosses have amassed enormous personal wealth while the country remained poor. TPLF bosses, including the wife of the prime minister, have become among the richest people in Africa over the past 20 years.

 

9. Like Meles Zenawi’s wife Azeb Mesfin, the wife of Ben Ali, Laila, diverted tens of millions of dollars to the couple’s bank accounts in Western countries. The hijacking of Tunisian state funds by Laila and Ben Ali led to inflation, and a constant rise in the price of basic necessities, followed by an increase in unemployment. “People are now convinced that the [Tunisia] First Family is an insatiable economic animal bent on gratuitous enrichment and unchecked influence-wielding.” – a U.S. diplomatic cable recently posted on Wilileaks.org

 

10. Ben Ali used to be a “dependable” an ally of the U.S. and Western government. “Not many people in the West noticed that it was only a very small minority that enjoyed the benefits of the economic reforms and revenues brought in by tourists. Corruption was rampant and the Ben Ali family, and that of his second wife Laila, were the principal beneficiaries.” – Jerusalem Post

 

Read more

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

 

 

TUNIS, Tunisia — Four ministers quit Tunisia's day-old government on Tuesday, undermining its hopes of quelling unrest by sharing power with members of the opposition to the old regime.

 

 

All who resigned were opponents of deposed President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's iron-fisted 23-year rule and had been named to the government Monday. It was not immediately clear if the resignations could bring down the government, which has 40 full and junior ministers.

 

 

Clashes broke out in central Tunis around the time the resignations were announced, as police fought off protesters demanding that the new cabinet be purged of the old guard that served Ben Ali.

 

 

Riot police in shielded helmets pummeled a protester to the ground with batons and boot kicks as other officers fired off tear gas grenades to disperse a crowd of several hundred demonstrators.

 

 

"I am afraid that our revolution will be stolen from me and my people. The people are asking for freedoms and this new government is not. They are the ones who oppressed the people for 22 years," said Ines Mawdud, a 22-year-old student among protesters at the demonstration.

 

 

Tunisia's Ennahdha Islamist party said its members also marched Tuesday – something that was unthinkable during the rule of Ben Ali, who banned the group and waged an ongoing crackdown against it.

 

 

A month of unrest has devastated the Mediterranean nation's tourist industry. Thousands of tourists have been evacuated, and Germany's tour operator TUI AG said Tuesday it is canceling all departures to Tunisia through Feb. 15.

 

 

Junior Minister for Transportation and Equipment Anouar Ben Gueddour told The Associated Press Tuesday that he had resigned along with Houssine Dimassi, the labor minister, and minister without portfolio Abdeljelil Bedoui.

 

 

The three ministers are all members of a top labor union, the UGTT, which is not a party but is a movement that acts like a lobby and has a big nationwide base to mobilize people around the country.

 

 

Story continues below

 

 

The group's supporters staged the protest in central Tunis on Tuesday, calling for a general strike, constitutional changes and the release of all imprisoned union leaders.

Health Minister Mustapha Ben Jaafar of the FDLT opposition party also resigned, party member Hedi Raddaoui told The AP. The culture minister, Moufida Tlatli, told The AP she was considering resigning but was consulting her supporters first.

 

 

Tunisia's interim leaders have sought to stabilize the country after riots, looting and an apparent settling-of-scores after Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on Friday.

 

 

In an attempt to distance themselves from the ousted president, the country's interim president and prime minister on Tuesday quit Ben Ali's political party. The RCD party also kicked out Ben Ali, its founder, national television reported. It was not immediately clear how protesters would greet those moves.

 

 

On a back street off Avenue Bourguiba, a key thoroughfare where the clashes took place, about 50 UGTT members waved union flags and cheering. One sign read "RCD out" in English.

 

 

Union leaders said protesters calling for the RCD to be disbanded held peaceful demonstrations in Sidi Bouzid, the city where virulent criticism of Ben Ali's government first erupted last month, and two other towns.

 

 

Tuesday, political leader Moncef Marzouki returned from than 20 years of exile in France to a joyful reception at Tunis' airport from supporters of political leader who carried him on their shoulders.

 

 

Marzouki, a physician who leads the once-banned CPR party and wants to run for president, urged fellow Tunisians to hold firm in their efforts to bring down Ben Ali's party.

"Don't let anyone steal this blessed revolution from you," said Marzouki. "Don't waste the blood of our martyrs. We don't want any revenge, but we are fast with our principle that this horrible party does not return."

 

 

Mohamed Ghannouchi, who has been prime minister since 1999, claimed that his announcement Monday that he was including ministers from Ben Ali's party in the new government was needed "because we need them in this phase."

 

 

Tunisia has entered "an era of liberty," Ghannouchi said in an interview with France's Europe-1 radio posted on its website. "Give us a chance so that we can put in place this ambitious program of reform."

 

 

He insisted the ministers chosen "have clean hands, in addition to great competence," suggesting that experienced officials are needed along with opposition leaders in a caretaker government to guide the country before free elections are held in coming months.

 

 

Ghannouchi pledged Monday to free political prisoners and lift restrictions on a leading human rights group, the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights. He said the government would create three state commissions to study political reform, investigate corruption and bribery, and examine abuses during the recent upheaval.

 

 

The protests that forced out Ben Ali began last month after an educated but unemployed 26-year-old man set himself on fire when police confiscated the fruit and vegetables he was selling without a permit. The desperate act hit a nerve, sparking copycat suicides and focused anger against the regime into a widespread revolt.

 

 

Public protests spread over years of state repression, corruption, and a shortage of jobs for many educated young adults. The government announced Monday that 78 civilians have died in the month of unrest.

 

 

Reports of self-immolations surfaced in Egypt, Mauritania and Algeria on Monday, in apparent imitation of the Tunisian events.

 

 

The downfall of the 74-year-old Ben Ali, who had taken power in a bloodless coup in 1987, served as a warning to other autocratic leaders in the Arab world. His Mediterranean nation, an ally in the U.S. fight against terrorism and a popular tourist destination known for its wide beaches, deserts and ancient ruins, had seemed more stable than many in the region.

 

 

British Foreign Minister William Hague warned that it would be wrong to expect events in Tunisia to spark similar protests against other authoritarian regimes in the region.

 

 

"It's important to avoid thinking that the circumstances of one country are automatically replicated in another, even neighboring, country," he told BBC radio, speaking Tuesday during a visit to Australia.

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/18/tunisia-ministers-quit-ne_n_810402.html

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Xosni mubarak and his egypt is next inshallah

[Kamaavi]

Tunisia-Style Revolt feared inside Ethiopia: State Minister

 

(JT) Ethiopian Minister of State for Trade Ahmed Tusa said he is concerned about Tunisia-style revolt happening in Ethiopia that would overthrow the one-party rule of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Last week, the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Trade (MoT) set price ceilings for major food and non-food items in Ethiopia’s market.

 

The state minister said the price of food items "was blowing up beyond the capacity of Ethiopia’s lower and middle classes’ purchasing power." Similar economic problems, corruption and joblessness led to widespread street protests in the small north African country of Tunisia and forced President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali to leave the country.

 

"What happened in Tunisia should not happen in Ethiopia" declared Mr. Tusa, according to the weekly newspaper Reporter." Meles Zenawi said he "fears the worst" if the business community keeps on hoarding and keeps on playing with price fixing.

Like the family of the Tunisian leader President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, Ethiopian PM Zenawi's wife has allegedly accumulated wealth through corruption and manages the largest business conglomerate monopoly known as the Endowment Fund For Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT). A recent national election in Ethiopia has also been condemned by international observers, as the largest opposition party "Medrek" claimed it was cheated out of a victory. Meles Zenawi said his ruling party won over 99 percent of the seats in parliament. Despite the economic and political crisis in Ethiopia, opposition leaders have failed to mobilize the public toward change.

 

One of Ethiopia's opposition parties, Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP), said the recent Meles Zenawi's government action will have a dangerous long-term impact on the business community's trust of free market in Ethiopia.

 

Analysts say Tunisia-style revolts could happen in other African and Arab countries like Egypt, where economic and political freedoms are restricted. Over a hundred people have died and over a thousand people wounded in Tunisia during the month-long uprising in the country.

 

 

Source click here...