Tunisia’s banned Islamist leader announced plans to return home from exile in Britain as the violence-torn country moved quickly yesterday to set up a transitional government and organize elections.
Rachid Ghannouchi, head of the outlawed al-Nahda (Renaissance) movement, who has spent in Britain, said that his homeland needed a second revolution after the overthrow of President Ben Ali. “It needs another real revolution to establish a real democratic regime,” he said from his West London home. “The dictator’s regime is still there: the Constitution, the party, the parliament.”
Protests continued about the shape of the future Tunisia, with left-wing demonstrators demanding root-and-branch change. Police fired teargas in central Tunis to disperse a crowd of about 1,000 demanding that all members of Mr Ali’s ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally party (RCD) be driven from power. “The RCD must go because the ancien regime is like a chameleon. It can return with another face and massacre us,” said one protester.
The transitional Government, led by Mohamed Ghannouchi, Mr Ali’s former Prime Minister, has already demonstrated its seriousness by arresting the head of the ousted President’s security guard as well as a former interior minister. In the power-sharing deal announced last night, Mr Ghannouchi, who is not related to the Islamist leader, said that he would remain in his post until elections were held.
The Foreign, Interior and Defense ministers from Mr Ali’s last Government are also to retain their jobs. Three leading opposition figures, Ahmed Ibrahim, Mustafa Ben Jaafar and Néjib Chebbi, will take posts in the national unity Government. A blogger, Sidi Amamou, becomes Minister for Youth and Sport. Moufida Tlatli, a film director best known for The Silences of the Palace, about Tunisian women during the struggle for independence against France, is the Culture Minister.
The Prime Minister said the transitional Government was committed to freeing all political prisoners and guaranteed “total freedom” of the press. He also promised to investigate corruption during the rule of the deposed President and his family. “Anyone who accumulated enormous wealth or is suspected of corruption will be put before a committee of investigators,” he said.
Maya Jribi, secretary-general of the opposition Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), said that, despite being a longtime ally of the ousted President, the Prime Minister had a genuine “political will to serve the country”. Her party demanded elections after six months, rather than 60 days, as its price for entering the coalition to give political groups time to organize. She said that the PDP was in talks with the banned Islamists about granting them legal recognition.
Unlike in recent days, the tear gassing did not provoke a riot. The center of the capital remained shut, with few shopkeepers daring to open. Government offices opened for the first time since Thursday. Residents patrolled makeshift barricades to protect their homes from looters, and army tanks remained at key intersections. Officials said that 78 people had died in the protests in recent weeks.
Moncef Cheikhrouhou, a Tunisian economist, said that the central bank had told him that the former President’s family had taken 1.5 tonnes of gold worth $66 million (£41.5 million)out of the country. He said that militia loyal to Mr Ali had tried to raid the central bank on Sunday to get more gold but had been defeated by the army.
Rachid Ghannouchi said that his party would probably boycott the elections. “I do not think we will take part in the elections . . . we need to reorganize our movement after 20 years of harassment,” he said.
Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, accused the British Government of being slow to respond to the crisis and urged British Airways and other carriers to put on extra flights to bring tourists home. There are still about 1,000 Britons in Tunisia.
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