Bizerte (Tunisia), Special Envoy - Not a hotel opening, not even a restaurant. Bizerte is under siege. On the terrace of Café mixed with 100% male clientele, young people take the sun to rest after a long night spent with "dams" with other guys in the neighborhood to monitor suspicious vehicles. "We gave the first sweep in chasing Ben Ali.We must now give the second," smiled one of them, referring to the militias of the former regime in ambush in the port city, famous for its barracks, Prisons and huge ships. Avenue 7-November (date of arrival in power of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, November 7, 1987) may soon be renamed "Avenue de la Liberté" provide young people who do, they repeat, "fearless." Monday, January 17, are exchanged heavy fire in downtown, including a whole district was cordoned off by the army, unable to dislodge the six or seven snipers who camp on the roofs.
The Western hard since Saturday. "These snipers are absentmindedly totals. They are not hungry? Not thirsty? They never sleep?" Fatma Benmosbah irritated, journalist, forced to remain confined at home until the firing stops. In truth, nobody knows who these snipers. Nor how many. The rumored, never denied, never confirmed.
"They say they lack ammunition," the recluse advance, reached by telephone Monday night. "Since the end of the afternoon, it takes less," she adds. She hopes to get outside on Tuesday. "We'll get there, but they are tough: it will take time," joked a member of a vigilance committee, including the "dam" is erected on the road that winds through the pine forest Nadhor at- over Bizerte.
He too is watching the militia. They were suspected of wanting to lend a hand to the mutineers from the prison of Borj Erroumi at the top of the mountains. By a strange miracle, from the fall and the departure of President Ben Ali, prisons, Monastir and Mahdia were opened and the common law prisoners released.
A prison Mornag, the attempt failed. Here too. But a mutiny poisons the atmosphere. The detainees, telling members of the Vigilance Committee, emerged from their cells and are grouped in the prison yard. "The soldiers have orders to shoot anyone who tried to flee," they say. With his apparent nonchalance, Bizerte, 150 000 inhabitants, had, like most Tunisian towns, its days of looting targeted (Monoprix, Lee Cooper - signs that belong to the family Ben Ali - the employment office) .
No major event, however, has rattled the streets. "The police left the city, leaving her to fend for himself, a day or two before the fall of Ben Ali," said Dr. Saida Aoun. Looters took advantage. But wisely: not drift or slip. The policy of scorched earth, that the regime is suspected by some benali Bizertin have tried to implement did not work.
If violence is between snipers and soldiers. Civilians remain distant. Nobody can say with certainty whether there were deaths. It speaks of four soldiers killed and two snipers. The enemy remains largely invisible. Those who derive, are the police, loyal to the former regime, some of which are installed in the premises of the Police Directorate of Bizerte and Beja.
They would, in the several tens; executives, mostly. Some prefer not to leave their home and barricade themselves in their homes. Like officials and Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD, a former ruling party), holed up at home and avoiding going out "for fear of being recognized and lynched," said Mohammed Salah Fliss, and Bizertin old former political prisoner under President Habib Bourguiba.
This would be the case, for example, the secretary general of the Coordinating Committee - the regional structure of the RCD - a position which the former head of state had personally appointed. This is also the case of the governor, who served under Mr. Ben Ali, a transmission belt between central and Bizerte.
Since 14 January, the governor no longer shows. "It has nothing to do," said Mohammed Salah Fliss. Offices, deserted, are now under military custody. Catherine Simon Article published in the edition of 19.01.11
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