Veteran
Tunisian leader quits after protests
January
14, 2011 11:41:22 PM
Source News Feed: Reuters World Service
* Ben Ali quits, prime minister says
he has taken over
* Ben Ali's whereabouts unclear,
protests could resume
* Drama sends shockwaves across
authoritarian Arab states
(Adds Clinton comments, report of
Ben Ali arriving in Jeddah)
By Tarek Amara and Christian Lowe
TUNIS, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A surge of
anger in the streets over police repression and poverty swept Tunisia's veteran
leader from power on Friday, sending a chill through unpopular authoritarian
governments across the Arab world.
President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali
stepped aside after more than two decades in power and looked to have flown out
of the country. His exact whereabouts were unclear.
Ben Ali's prime minister told
Tunisians he would steer the state until early elections. The streets of the
capital were mostly calm amid heavy security, but analysts questioned whether
the change of face at the top would satisfy the protesters.
After days of violence that spread
from provincial towns to Tunis, leaving dozens dead as security forces
struggled to contain angry young demonstrators, the government declared a state
of emergency on Friday and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
The last ditch attempt to reassert
control failed and within hours it was announced Ben Ali had quit.
The violence and rapid turn of
events sent shockwaves across the Arab world, where similar authoritarian
rulers are deeply entrenched, but face mounting pressures from growing young
populations, economic hardship and the appeal of militant Islam.
"The fall of Ben Ali marks the
first ever collapse of an autocratic regime in the face of a popular uprising
in the Arab world," said U.S. political risk consultancy Stratfor.
"Leaders across the Arab world,
and especially in North Africa, will now look to the Tunisian example with
concerns about how the situation could be replicated in their own
countries."
There was no evidence of new
protests in Tunis after the announcement by Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi
that he would act as president until elections could be held. But occasional
gunfire could still be heard. Police helicopters flew over the city after
Ghannouchi, in an interview with a private television channel, promised to
protect people from looters.
The calm, after days of intense
violence, appeared fragile.
Fadhel Bel Taher, whose brother died
in the clashes, told al Jazeera television that protests would soon resume.
"Tomorrow we will be back in the streets, in Martyrs Square, to continue
this civil disobedience until ... the regime is gone," he said.
Some, however, were in a more
jubilant mood. In the town of Menzel Bouzaiane, south of Tunis, about 5,000
people gathered in the streets to celebrate Ben Ali's apparent departure, local
trade union activist Mohamed Fadhel told Reuters.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton said Ben Ali had left the country, as widely reported by Arabic TV
stations.
Saudi Arabian-owned Al Arabiya TV
reported that he had landed in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
He had been originally thought to
have flown to France, Tunis's former colonial power, but French media quoted
President Nicolas Sarkozy as saying that France had refused to give Ben Ali
permission to enter the country.
CALL FOR UNITY
Western powers have long turned a
blind eye to rulers in the region who provide a bulwark against Islamist
radicals. The United States led international calls for calm and for the people
of Tunisia to be given a free choice of leaders.
"I condemn and deplore the use
of violence against citizens peacefully voicing their opinion in Tunisia, and I
applaud the courage and dignity of the Tunisian people," said U.S.
President Barack Obama.
In Washington, Clinton said in a
statement that Ben Ali had left Tunisia. "Young people especially need to
have a meaningful role in the decisions that shape their lives," she said
after returning from a trip to the Middle East this week.
"Addressing these concerns will
be challenging, but the United States stands ready to help," she added.
Western countries urged their
citizens to avoid travel to the popular tourist destination due to the
instability. Holiday operator Thomas Cook said it was evacuating almost 4,000
German, British and Irish tourists from Tunisia.
It remained uncertain how far those
around Ben Ali, only the second president Tunisia has had since independence
from France, were ready to relinquish power to opposition groups.
"Since the president is
temporarily unable to exercise his duties, it has been decided that the prime
minister will exercise temporarily the duties," Ghannouchi said.
"I call on the sons and
daughters of Tunisia, of all political and intellectual persuasions, to unite
to allow our beloved country to overcome this difficult period and to return to
stability."
In power since 1987, Ben Ali had
declared a state of emergency earlier on Friday and said protesters would be
shot in an increasingly violent confrontation. He had also dismissed the
government and called an early parliamentary election.
The latest unrest was sparked when
police prevented an unemployed graduate from selling fruit without a licence
and he set fire to himself, dying shortly afterwards of his burns.
As the violence escalated, police
fired tear gas to disperse crowds in central Tunis demanding his immediate
resignation. They were not satisfied with his promise on Thursday to step down,
but only at the end of his current term in 2014.
A Reuters photographer saw people
looting supermarkets in a Tunis suburb and said they had set fire to a police
station.
On almost every block in suburban
Tunis, people were standing on the street with baseball bats to protect their
cars and homes from damage by looters, a Reuters reporter said.
Opposition leader Najib Chebbi, one
of Ben Ali's most outspoken critics, described the events as a "regime
change".
"This is a crucial moment.
There is a change of regime under way. Now it's the succession," he told
France's I-Tele TV. (Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, John
Irish, Brian Love and Laure Bretton in Paris; writing by Maria Golovnina;
Editing by Matthew Jones)
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