THALA, Tunisia: Angry residents of a town in northern Tunisia hurled stones at the car of visiting Islamist leader Rached Ghannouchi yesterday, a security source said.
At the sight of Ghannouchi, several dozen people in Thala shouted “Get out!” — one of the rallying cries of the revolution that toppled the regime of former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. The chief of Tunisia’s ruling Ennahda party quickly got back in his car, which some protesters then pelted with stones, breaking the rear window, the same source said.
Zoubeir Echhoudi, an aide to Ghannouchi, said some youths threw rocks at the convoy of Ennahda members, which had come to take part in the reburial of an activist executed in 1963, under the regime of Tunisia’s founding president Habib Bourguiba. The remains of Ahmed Rahmouni had been exhumed at the request of his family, who wanted an autopsy carried out to determine the real cause of his death. Since last year, a number of political figures have been attacked by Tunisians angry about the government’s performance.
At celebrations to mark the second anniversary of the start of Tunisia’s revolution, President Moncef Marzouki and parliament speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar were heckled and pelted with stones in the town of Sidi Bouzid as they were about to address the crowd.
Tunisia’s political crisis is taking its toll on the economy of a country that is also facing growing social unrest, with credit ratings downgrades and talks with the IMF on a $1.78bn loan still in limbo. The north African nation fell into recession following the revolution two years ago that toppled a decades-old dictatorship, but the ruling Islamist party Ennahda boasted of an economic recovery after its rise to power in December 2011.
Ennahda hailed the 3.6 percent growth posted by Tunisia in 2012 — 0.1 of a percentage point higher than had been expected. But the murder on February 6 of leftist politician Chokri Belaid has plunged the country into turmoil, prompting the resignation of Ennahda prime minister Hamadi Jebali after his efforts to form a new government of technocrats failed.AFP
