Thread: Is Tunisia the first domino to fall?

Is Tunisia the first domino to fall?

The events that triggered the overthrow of President Ben Ali are unique, but there are good reasons for alarm among rulers across the Arab world


A demonstrator faces police during clashes in Tunis last Friday Photo: APClaire Spencer 11:00PM GMT 16 Jan 2011

If it were only Tunisia, the outside world might be excused for being slow to wake up to the potential consequences of the protests that led to last Friday's sudden ousting of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali from the presidency. The convulsion is now being described in terms of a "scenario" to be avoided elsewhere in the Arab world, with commentators looking around the region, notably to Tunisia's eastern neighbour Algeria, where riots over food prices have only just subsided, and towards Egypt, where recent attacks on the Christian Copts raised the spectre of deepening sectarian violence.

What is afoot in North Africa, and will it really infect the internal dynamics of other Arab states? On the face of it, the main spark for the Tunisian unrest was high unemployment, particularly among graduates, whereas in Algeria, it was the spike in the prices of cooking oil and sugar. Having reduced the taxes on both, the Algerian government has defused the tension for now, without addressing the underlying pressures of youth unemployment, underinvestment in poorer regions, and its own unaccountability to its citizens.

All these issues have their parallels in Tunisia, along with strains on living standards affecting the whole region. In 2008, a sudden, 30 per cent rise in the price of imported wheat provoked widespread bread riots in Egypt, and Jordan has recently seen protests over living costs too.

The combination of circumstances that triggered events in Tunisia has, nevertheless, been unique. Tunisian society may be in large part Arab, but it is also embedded in the Mediterranean, with a long Roman and Phoenician history. Just like their historical cousins in Lebanon, Malta and Italy, this had made Tunisians a nation of traders, open to business with the outside world.

More recently, the Tunisian economy has combined trade liberalisation and greater openness to the outside world out of necessity. Unlike its nearest neighbours, Tunisia cannot rely on oil and gas exports for 97 per cent of its foreign earnings, as do Libya and Algeria. The Tunisian state has had to import energy and attract foreign investment for its textile industry, offshore car-assembly plants and tourist developments.

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Necessarily, this made it harder for Ben Ali to concentrate wealth, and hence power, in a few pairs of hands without increasing recourse to repression. When he and his in-laws siphoned off more than was acceptable, their departure was hastened by the combined weight of young protesters, trade unions, professional associations and senior military officers.

It is premature to expect this level of consensus to arise any time soon in the more densely populated and fragmented states of the Arab Middle East, above all in any of the oil-exporting states whose rulers keep a tight rein on national finances, as well as on the military.

Beneath the surface of the whole Arab world, however, lie structural causes for discontent which, as in Tunisia, will certainly not dissipate soon. The first is the failing of the pact between the rulers and ruled; that in exchange for their exclusion from politics, the state will provide its citizens with jobs, services and economic growth. This has not happened, or has not happened fast enough for the region's burgeoning populations, which explains why sporadic outbursts have been a feature of life in Egypt and Algeria for five years or more, albeit localised and largely unnoticed from outside.

In Tunisia, despite well-known known human rights limitations, the Ben Ali regime survived through educating its 10 million citizens to high levels and promising women more freedoms in the market place than elsewhere in the region. Until the last few weeks, its external image was, accordingly, positive.

With a doubling in unemployed graduates, from 40,000 to 80,000 in recent years, the weaknesses of the Tunisian model became more obvious. It may be coincidental, but one of WikiLeaks' offerings in December provided evidence of just how concerned US officials had become over President Ben Ali's dysfunctional government and the rapacious lifestyles of his nearest relatives.

WikiLeaks, along with other critical websites, was banned in Tunisia, but Tunisians have long been aware of how flagrant the gap between the affluent few and the rest had become, as well as how gagged they were in an increasingly interconnected world. The trade-off of silence for a prosperous life no longer worked.

The other pact that failed in Tunisia, and is failing elsewhere, is the one between narrowly-based regional elites and their international partners, above all Europe and the US.

Since 9/11 these elites have made a promise to control al-Qaeda and its regional affiliates as well as curb the migration of unemployed youths and Sub-Saharan Africans northwards into Europe. In return, Europe and the US have lifted the pressure to democratise in favour of promoting economic reforms and investment to assist their regional allies in providing work for their burgeoning populations.

With about three-quarters of most Arab populations now under 30, the private sectors in these states need more oxygen, less corruption and the removal of state interference to meet the demand for jobs. In their absence, the trade-off of security for economic palliatives has also stopped working, for Europe and the US as well as for the majority of Tunisians.

Should other regional leaderships take note, then, of what happens next in Tunisia and limit the fallout? The common features of all but the smallest Arab states are a youth bulge in the age range of 15- to 29-year-olds, along with the stifling of private initiative in both economic and political spheres. Only Lebanon, and, to a lesser extent, some of the Gulf states and Morocco, have loosened their political and economic controls sufficiently to bring new entrants to the market for ideas and enterprise.

Patronage, nepotism and officially-sanctioned bribery are still the preferred ways of doing business, as is arresting those who overstep the mark. The difference between this and corruption seen elsewhere is that only lip-service is paid to the emergence of independent judiciaries and the rule of law needed to curtail it.

The lack of progress towards establishing either is, in practice, an integral part of maintaining the status quo across the Arab world. Thus, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's appeal of last week for Arab leaders to step up the pace of reform or, by inference, sink beneath the pressures that toppled Ben Ali, may once again fall on deaf ears. Reform has never really kept autocrats in power.

The EU and US would do well to re-evaluate policies based on urging individual leaderships to deliver reform on their own. As a model for future engagement with the Arab world, they might do better to look to their own history of integrating the autocracies of southern, eastern and central Europe into the democratic fold from the 1980s. Here, progress depended on extending relations with popular institutions and processes, not with unelected leaders. It also meant directing financial support and incentives towards the population as a whole, including membership of the EU and Nato.

The immediate challenge facing the interim authorities in Tunisia is whether, after years of social control through repression, they are capable of opening up to the kind of power- and wealth-sharing needed to put the genie of popular protest back in the bottle. It may have to wait until the next generation of leaders. And, with so many other Arab leaders facing succession issues across the Middle East soon, that should give them all pause for thought.

Dr Spencer is Head, Middle East & North Africa Programme, Chatham House

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -fall.html

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Tunisian President Flees Country http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid ... lxhk&pos=8

Uprising brings joy to Tunisia – and fear to the region's autocrats

One man's suicide sparked a nationwide uprising, and now other repressive regimes across the Arab world can see the seeds of their own destruction in the burnt-out buildings of Tunis

By Elaine Ganley and Bouazza Ben Bouazza in Tunis and David Randall and Maryrose Fison in London

Sunday, 16 January 2011

Buildings burned, army snipers fired from rooftops, other gunfire sounded sporadically across the capital, and at least 42 were killed when a prison was torched, as Tunisia yesterday teetered between continued violent chaos and the first faltering steps towards a possible new start. Other regimes in North Africa and the Arab world looked on with some trepidation lest, as many predict, Tunisia's unrest should help foment a similar end to their lengthy and undemocratic rule.

The unseating by popular uprising of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali after 23 years of repressive rule and pocket-filling is virtually unprecedented in a region where democracy is a concept rather than a reality, economic hopelessness is widespread, and militant Islam a potent force. Yesterday, in the wake of Mr Ben Ali's sudden departure, Arab activists celebrated, thousands of messages congratulating the Tunisian people flooded the internet on Twitter, Facebook and blogs, and many people replaced their profile pictures with red Tunisian flags.

One Egyptian human rights activist, Hossam Bahgat, said he hoped that his countrymen could do the same some day. "I feel like we are a giant step closer to our own liberation. What's significant about Tunisia is that literally days ago the regime seemed unshakable, and then eventually democracy prevailed without a single Western state lifting a finger." On Friday, activists opposed to President Hosni Mubarak's three-decade regime in Cairo chanted a reference to the Tunisian's president's airborne exile: "Ben Ali, tell Mubarak a plane is waiting for him, too."

Analysts certainly saw Tunisia as potentially a trigger for uprising in other countries in the region. Jean-Paul Pigat, of Business Monitor International, said yesterday: "Looking at the conditions that are necessary for unrest, it becomes clear that Egypt certainly ticks many of the boxes. Food-price inflation in Egypt is among the highest in the entire region, and the impact of food-price inflation on possible unrest should never be downplayed."

And Dr Maha Azzam, an associate fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme, at Chatham House, said: "Tunisia has started a momentum that is going to be difficult to hold back. Certainly we are going to see turmoil in Egypt. I think it will come to a head with the presidential elections in September, but something could occur before this. Obviously we have to keep in mind that the level of security is very, very high in Egypt."

Another factor there is the limited use of social and internet media, compared with Tunisia. According to Professor Emma Murphy, of the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University: "One quarter of Tunisians use Facebook. In Egypt there is a larger population, they are less well educated, they are not internet-connected, not watching Al Jazeera, they are watching state television. Whereas the Tunisians are very homogeneous, Egypt is a more complicated and diffuse place."

Some experts thought it telling that the Tunisian crisis was spontaneous and had no obvious architect or central guiding force. A Beirut-based commentator, Rami Khouri, said: "It marks the end of acquiescence and docility among masses of ordinary Arab citizens who had remained remarkably complacent for decades in the face of the mounting power of Western-backed Arab security states and police- and army-based ruling regimes."

The baton of revolution may take some time to be passed, particularly since, as Sir Richard Dalton, former British ambassador to Libya and Iran pointed out, other regimes "will not have the squeamishness about suppression with violence that the Tunisians showed". Tunisia's popular movement was being compared in several quarters yesterday to that in Poland, where a 1989 popular movement instigated freedom in Eastern Europe. But that process took many months, and was seeded in very different ground, as yesterday's chaotic events in Tunis demonstrated.

Soldiers and police exchanged fire with assailants in front of Tunisia's Interior Ministry, and snipers could be seen on the roof. The skirmish came soon after Tunisia swore in a new interim president. He is Fouad Mebazaa, the 77-year-old former president of the lower house of parliament, who swiftly ordered the creation of a unity government that could include the opposition, ignored under Mr Ben Ali's autocratic rule.

Mr Mebazaa, in his first move after being sworn in, seemed intent on reconciliation and calming tensions. In his first televised address, he said he had asked the Prime Minister to form a "national unity government in the country's best interests" in which all political parties will be consulted "without exception or exclusion".

The leadership changes came at a dizzying speed. Mr Ben Ali left abruptly on Friday night for Saudi Arabia, where he is now holed up in the small city of Abha, 310 miles south of Jeddah. Some of his family were said by the interim regime in Tunisia to be under arrest, and the French government says family members resident there "are not welcome in France and are leaving". None of these relatives was named.

Mr Ben Ali's long-time ally, Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi, then stepped in briefly with a vague assumption of power. But on Saturday, Constitutional Council President Fethi Abdennadher declared the President's departure was permanent and gave Mr Mebazaa 60 days in which to organise new elections. Hours later, Mr Mebazaa was sworn in.

It was unclear who might emerge as the main candidates for power in a post-Ben Ali Tunisia. The autocratic leader had utterly dominated politics for decades, placing his men in positions of power and sending opponents to jail or into exile. It was also not clear how far Mr Mebazaa would go in inviting the opposition into the government. He has been part of the ruling apparatus for years, including leading parliament for two decades.

Amid the official to-ings and fro-ings, a fire at a prison in the Mediterranean resort of Monastir killed 42 people, and inmates staged a mass breakout. Sporadic gunfire was also heard in Tunis. Black smoke billowed over a giant supermarket as looters torched and emptied it. Shops near the main bazaar were looted. There were also a number of drive-by shootings.

As night fell, suburban neighbourhoods were being guarded from looters by impromptu militias formed by residents armed with clubs and knives. Later, there were reports that Mr Ben Ali's head of security had been arrested. However matters turn out, yesterday there was a palpable air of achievement among the protesters. Hamdi Kriaa, an accountant from Tunis, told the BBC: "We are living through special days, historic days. Yesterday I was protesting in front of the Interior Ministry together with some 10,000 people. The sensation was incredible. We are very proud to be Tunisian because we showed the whole world that we want to live in freedom."

Tunisian airspace reopened yesterday, but some flights were cancelled and others left after delays. Thousands of tourists were still being evacuated from the Mediterranean nation, known for its sandy beaches, desert landscapes and ancient ruins. Most, if not all, of the 3,000-odd Britons holidaying in the country are now expected to have arrived home.

Tourism is vital to Tunisia and is one of the reasons why Mr Ben Ali's country did not seem especially vulnerable to uprising until very recently. He managed the economy of his small nation of 10 million better than many other Middle Eastern states, turning Tunisia into a beach haven for tourists. Growth last year was at 3.1 per cent, but unemployment was officially measured at 14 per cent, and was far higher – 52 per cent – among the young.

But there was a lack of civil rights and little or no freedom of speech, and all it took to ignite the unrest was an educated but jobless 26-year-old committing suicide in mid-December after police confiscated the fruits and vegetables he was selling without a permit. His desperate act hit a nerve, sparked copycat suicides and focused general anger against the regime into an outright revolt. He was the touch-paper for Tunisia. Will that country now be a fuse for other countries in the region?

Eyewitness accounts: 'Snipers pointed their guns down on us'

Lizzy Roe, 18, from Epping, Essex, is due to marry her Tunisian fiancé in two weeks: "They got my fiancé. He's in hospital now in a wheelchair. Where we live was safe, but in the towns there are people lying dead in the streets. There are people with half their heads missing. I didn't want to leave my fiancé, but I was told I had to come home."

Natasha Kent, in her 20s, from Wembley: "We wanted to stay but when we heard the petrol station go up, we wanted out. We hadn't left our hotel for four days. We were under curfew after dark. I went out once and was told by an army officer to go back. There was army everywhere."

Ross Wiseman, from Sunderland, was less than 36 hours into his holiday when he and his family were brought home: "On the journey to the airport there were armed soldiers on the streets, and that was intimidating. You could see the snipers on the top of buildings with their guns pointing down on us. But even though this has happened I would definitely go back. It was one of the nicest and most friendly places I have ever been to."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 85820.html

Arab despots should heed events in Tunisia

Presidents-for-life offering bogus protection against phantom terrorists are not reliable friends

The Observer, Sunday 16 January 2011
183 Comments

The fall from power of Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine ben Ali is one of those widely unpredicted turns of events that hindsight quickly labels inevitable.

Corrupt authoritarian regimes are generally brittle and Mr Ben Ali's was no exception. But few anticipated how quickly a spate of angry demonstrations could become a regime-changing rebellion. Other governments across the region, with populations hardly less repressed than Tunisia's, will look on in fear.

Mr Ben Ali was considered by western diplomats to be a relatively reliable fixture. Under his 23-year rule, the country had the status of a minor player in North Africa – avoiding involvement in wider Middle East disputes and carving out an economic niche as a Mediterranean holiday destination.

Meanwhile, the president, his wife and their extended family built a lucrative commercial empire. Political dissent has been crushed and media stifled. In a dispatch sent in July 2009 – one of the secret cables published earlier this year by WikiLeaks – the US ambassador to Tunis described rising frustration among ordinary Tunisians as a result of "First Family corruption, high unemployment and regional inequities". He also noted that major change would "have to wait for Ben Ali's departure".

Tunisians clearly shared that view.

The trigger was the suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi, an unemployed student who set fire to himself in protest after police confiscated the vegetable stall that was his living. A wave of sympathetic protest then grew, becoming ever more determined in response to brutal attempts at suppression by police.

While the mass mobilisation was sudden, the frustration it expressed has been a generation in the making. This revolution is demographic as well as economic and political. One in five Tunisians is aged 15-24 (as compared with around 1 in 10 in Britain) and youth unemployment is at least 30%. Joblessness is particularly high among university graduates. That is a phenomenon common to many Arab countries as a growing graduate population combines with a decline in the state's ability to provide public sector jobs, while private sectors remain underdeveloped.

The result is a huge cohort of young people with too much time and not enough money. In Algeria, they are known as the "hittists", meaning the people who lean against walls – an emblem of bored, disaffected youth. Members of this generation also have ways of sharing information online that, while sometimes disrupted by state censorship, cannot be entirely silenced. They are potentially a vast source of political upheaval.

That is one reason why governments from Morocco and Algeria along the Mediterranean coast to Egypt, Jordan, Syria and the Gulf will be watching Tunisia with alarm. These are diverse states, but with common features: ossified politics and corrupt elites, lacking any governing principle other than the urge to resist demands for change from liberals and Islamists. They also suffer from cultural and academic sterility – the suffocation of free thought that might seed political and social renewal.

Stability for such regimes relies on a combination of state force and public apathy. It is the latter that changed so markedly in Tunisia. Especially worrying for other Arab leaders will be the fearlessness of the crowd, prepared to confront riot police firing live rounds. Authoritarian regimes rarely survive for long once the illusion of invincibility is shattered.

In recent weeks, there have been angry protests over rising food prices and unemployment in Jordan and Algeria. There were riots in Egypt last November after disputed parliamentary elections.

The lack of legitimacy does not mean Arab regimes are about to topple. The experience of communist states in eastern Europe in the 1980s shows that bankrupt systems can cling on in protracted, decaying endgames. But ultimately, they do fall.

The comparison is revealing. During the cold war, western powers routinely supported the aspirations of captive citizens against their rulers. The west also cultivated dissident intellectuals, recognising the moral power that flows from the defence of open minds against closed systems. By contrast, the US and Europe have propped up blinkered, failing Arab regimes, judging them to be bulwarks against Islamist radicalism. It is a terribly misguided strategy, not least because it conforms to the jihadi narrative of a west hostile to the interests of ordinary Muslims.

In Tunisia, the opposition is not especially Islamic. Mr Ben Ali's attempts to label the demonstrators "terrorists" in the early days of the uprising was a sign of desperation. Presumably, he hoped to buy US sympathy. Much past American policy in the region gave him grounds to think such a tactic might work.

But there are signs of a more sophisticated approach coming from Washington. Last week, secretary of state Hillary Clinton spoke damningly of the failure by Arab states to modernise. Spreading opportunity to ordinary people, she said, was the surest guarantee against extremism.

Europe has been slower to speak out on behalf of disenfranchised Arabs. France, the former colonial power in Tunisia, supported Mr Ben Ali until the very last moment. One minster offered to send riot police to help shore up the regime.

The EU has an obvious interest in fostering political and economic regeneration on its Mediterranean border. The goal has often been discussed at regional summits, but progress is never made because modernisation means breaking up the power monopolies of corrupt elites. It takes a concerted effort of diplomatic and commercial power to encourage such regimes to change. The alternative, as has been proved in Tunisia, is violent change forced from below.

It is unclear whether the country will emerge from this tumult with better leaders. There is at least potential for progress without Mr Ben Ali. That is a warning to leaders across the region. But it also contains a lesson for Europe and the US. Presidents-for-life offering bogus protection against phantom terrorists are not reliable friends. The surest allies for the long term are the ordinary people in Arab countries whose aspirations are being systematically thwarted. It is their friendship the west must be conspicuously courting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... port-arabs

Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and his family's 'Mafia rule'

As Tunisia's President Ben Ali is granted leave to remain in Saudi Arabia, the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by the president and his family is coming into the spotlight.

By Colin Freeman 8:00AM GMT 16 Jan 2011

Their preferred title was "Tunisia's First Family". To the people they ruled over, though, president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and his clan were known as "The Mafia" - a ruling clique whose greed and nepotism ultimately caused their downfall.

Following in the footsteps of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin and numerous other deposed dictators, Mr Ben Ali was granted refuge in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, starting what will likely be a comfortable, if less than dignified, political retirement.

But as millions of Tunisians celebrated the end of his 23-year-long authoritarian rule, it was not just the 74-year-old president they were glad to see the back of.

Far more reviled, it seems, was his second wife Laila, a feisty brunette more than 20 years his junior, who was dubbed "The Regent of Carthage" for her power behind the throne.

A former hairdresser from a humble background, she stands accused of using her marriage to Mr Ben Ali to turn her family, the Trabelsis, into the desert nation's most powerful business clique.

As of Saturday night, the former first couple were keeping a low profile. Mr Ben Ali was reported to have flown into the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah, where Idi Amin spent his final years.

Meanwhile rumours circulated that his wife, who is thought to have fled the country separately and beforehand, had headed for Dubai - a destination with which she is said to be well acquainted through shopping trips.

"All President Ben Ali's power and wealth became concentrated in the family, and especially that of his wife," said Saad Djebbar, an Arab political analyst. "He was so arrogant that he undermined his own power base, alienating supporters in the party and the business community."

In public, the country's First Lady had styled herself as one of the Arab world's most progressive female politicians, heading charitable foundations and espousing feminism and women's rights. But critics say that behind the scenes, she pursued an acquisitive agenda that saw her widely-likened to Imelda Marcos of the Philippines.

Few such criticisms ever emerged in Tunisia's tame and highly-censored media - much of which is owned by members of the ruling family. But the government could not prevent Tunisians getting access on the internet to last year's Wikileaks reports, in which former US ambassador Robert F. Godec penned several vivid snapshots of the elite's pampered lifestyle.

In one, he described the astonishing opulence of a lunch date at the house of Mohamed Sakher El Materi, a billionaire businessman who is the president's son-in-law and - until last week anyway - his rumoured heir apparent.

Sitting in a beachfront compound decorated with Roman artifacts, Mr Godec noted that ice cream and frozen yogurt had been flown from St Tropez, and that his host kept a pet tiger in a cage - a habit also shared by Saddam Hussein's late son, Uday.

When many ordinary Tunisians struggled to even find jobs, he later noted, it was hardly surprising that such bling lifestyles did not endear the ruling family to their subjects.

"President Ben Ali's extended family is often cited as the nexus of Tunisian corruption," Mr Godec wrote in a cable to Washington. "Ben Ali's wife, Leila Ben Ali, and her extended family - the Trabelsis - provoke the greatest ire from Tunisians. Along with the numerous allegations of Trabelsi corruption are often barbs about their lack of education, low social status, and conspicuous consumption.

"While some of the complaints about the Trabelsi clan seem to emanate from a disdain for their nouveau riche inclinations, Tunisians also argue that the Trabelsis' strong arm tactics and flagrant abuse of the system make them easy to hate."

Last week, demonstrators in the town of Hammamet, an up-market resort on Tunisia's Mediterranean coast, attacked luxury villas identified as belonging to members of the president's extended clan.

At one mansion, looters filmed themselves on mobile phones as they gleefully set fire to top-of-the-range sports utility vehicles and did wheelies on motorbikes across pristine lawns. According to some reports, local security forces had even suggested they loot the Trabelsi mansions rather than attack the police station.

Since then, rioters have turned their attentions to the Trabelsi's business empire, looting shops and supermarkets identified as belonging to them.

There are, it seems, no shortage of potential targets. Leila's brother Belhassen alone is said to own an airline, several hotels, two of Tunisia's private radio stations, and a car assembly plant.

As Ambassador Godec noted, many foreign investors found it hard to operate in the country without giving a cut of their business to member of the ruling family. The McDonalds burger chain - not often hailed as the champion of ethical business practice - lost the chance of a franchise in Tunisia because of its refusal to grant it to someone with "family connections".

Just how much of their empire the Trabelsi family will be able to hold on to now that their chief patron has gone remains to be seen.

The president himself is said to have a personal fortune of around £3.5 billion, although last night, Tunisia's old colonial ruler, France, said it had taken steps to ensure "suspicious financial movements" through its financial system would be blocked.

Meanwhile, Ben Ali's son-in-law, Mr Materi, was said to have holed up in a £300-a-night VIP suite at hotel at Disneyland Paris, along with his wife Nesrine, 24, and other hangers-on. Four Tunisian bodyguards were said to be camped in the hotel lobby.

"The Tunisian Embassy in Paris was the first place they stayed, but when expat Tunisians started demonstrating outside they decided to move out to Disneyland," said a source at the theme park.

"The problem is that the entourage is so large that people started to notice them immediately. The women are dressed in designer clothes and look like princesses, covered in expensive jewellery, and Mercedes limousines are coming and going all the time."

In any case, they may not be able to stay much longer. on Saturday night a French government spokesman said members of the former ruling family were not welcome on French soil "and should leave".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -rule.html

Algerian dies in self-immolation, echoing Tunisia

ALGIERS | Sun Jan 16, 2011 12:43pm GMT

ALGIERS (Reuters) - A man has died after setting himself on fire at a government building in Algeria, state radio reported on Sunday, echoing the self-immolation that triggered the protests that toppled the leader of neighbouring Tunisia.

Mohsen Bouterfif doused himself in gasoline and set himself on fire on Thursday after a meeting with the mayor of the small city of Boukhadra who was unable to provide him a job and a house, the daily El Khabar newspaper said. He died on Saturday of his burns.

About 100 young men protested over Mohsen's death in the town, in Tebessa province, 700 km east of Algiers. The governor of the province sacked the mayor, El Khabar said.

Several Algerian towns, including the capital Algiers, have experienced riots in recent weeks over unemployment and a sharp rise in the prices of food staples.

Official sources say two people have been killed and scores were injured during the unrest, which unfolded in parallel to street violence in Tunisia and demonstrations over high food prices in other North African and Middle Eastern countries.

To calm the protests, Algeria has cut the cost of sugar and cooking oil.

The fall of Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali on Friday -- the first time in generations that an Arab leader has been toppled by public protests -- sent a sharp signal to the rest of the region, dominated by autocratic regimes.

The protests that brought down Ben Ali erupted after the self-immolation of 26-year-old vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi, who set himself on fire on December 17 because police had confiscated his vegetable cart. Bouazizi died weeks later of his burns, becoming a martyr to crowds of students and the unemployed protesting against poor living conditions.

(Reporting by Lamine Chikhi; Editing by Peter Graff)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE70F0UL20110116

I predict Tunisia will go from one corrupt dictator to the next and the rest of the Arab world will ignore it.

Symbolic of the epochal change that is taking place

January 18, 2011

Ex Tunisia President's Wife Left with 1.5 Tons of Gold

Vasko Kohlmayer
13 Comments

This story is symbolic of the epochal change that is taking place. Until recently tyrants and government thugs ran away with suitcases stuffed with hundred dollars bills. Today they prefer gold. When this happens you know that the dollar is a dud. CNBC.com:

The French government suspects that former Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his family may have fled the country with 1.5 tons of gold, French daily Le Monde reported Monday. http://www.lemonde.fr/

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/201 ... e_lef.html