The Tunisian government is trying to extinguish the fire. Wednesday, January 12, Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, announced the dismissal of Interior Minister Rafik Haj Kacem, and release all those detained since the beginning of social unrest that shook the country. He also announced during a press conference, the formation of a commission of inquiry into alleged corruption involving public officials, denounced by opposition and NGOs.Sources within the opposition have also reported the dismissal of Chief of Staff of the Army, General Rashid Ammar. He reportedly refused to order the soldiers to quell the riots and expressed reservations about excessive use of force. Use of disproportionate force sentenced Wednesday by spokeswoman Catherine Ashton, head of European diplomacy.
Meanwhile, for the first time since the outbreak of fighting experienced by Tunisia for four weeks, the army was deployed in Tunis. Tension rose in the capital after clashes between police and demonstrators broke out overnight in the western suburbs, popular. A unique event in the chronology of the dispute, the epicenter of the movement located far in the center of the country.
In Tunis, in addition to large reinforcements of police and special response units, two army vehicles and armed soldiers stood guard on the place of avenues linking France and Habib Bourguiba, opposite the Embassy of France and the great cathedral of Tunis. This place was the day the scene of demonstrations suppressed by the police.
Military reinforcements were also visible around the home of radio and television in the Lafayette area. The army had also taken a stand in the center and at the entrance to the city where popular Ettadhamen youth and police clashed last night. Radio stations broadcast their national and private programs normally, the government radio back largely on actions taken by President Zine El-Ali AbidineBen.
The crisis in Tunisia, an unprecedented 23 years, took a dramatic turn this weekend with violent clashes in central cities that left 21 dead according to the government and more than 50 according to a union source. President Ben Ali, aged 74, was reached Monday on television, promising to create 300,000 jobs in two years.
He also described the violence as "terrorism" and accused "elements hostile to the pay of foreigners." The opposition and NGOs have found the response inadequate power, a radical party even calling for the resignation of the government. According to ten NGOs, including the League for the Defence of Human Rights, the real causes of the crisis are "corruption, nepotism and lack of political freedoms."
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