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Thursday, November 24, 2011

Tunisian Revolution

 Tunisia,officially the Tunisian Republic is the Northernmost Country in Africa. Tunisia is bordered by Algeria  to the west,Libya  to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea  to the north and east.



  
Why Revolution in Tunisia?
 A jobless graduate Mohamed Bouazizi was selling vegetables without a permit. When police seize his cart he sets fire to himself and later dies on Dec 17,2010. The act provokes young Tunisians to protest.After 10 days of protests, President Ben Ali appears on television promising action on job creation. He declares the law will be very firm on protesters.In Jan 2011,protesters set fire to cars in several Tunisian cities; security forces respond violently.On Jan 14,2011,Ben Ali finally bows to the protests and flees to Saudi Arabia by way of Malta.

The Tunisian Revolution is an intensive campaign of civil resistance  including a series of street demonstrations taking place in Tunisia which  began in December 2010 because of  high unemployment;food inflation;corruption;lack of freedom of speech and other political freedoms and led to the ousting of  President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali  in January 2011 ending 23 years in power(ruled Tunisia since 1987)

Hamada Ben Amar, a.k.a. El Général, Tunisian rapper whose song "Rais Lebled" became the anthem of the Jasmine Revolution. "We must not surrender our rights, these rights that we achieved through revolution and by eliminating this state called dictatorship in the Arab world''.



 



December 2010
The protests were sparked by the suicide of a young man(self immolation of Md Bouazizi) who could not find a job and was barred from selling fruit without a permit - December 17,2010


Houcine Falhi,a 22-year-old, commits suicide by electrocuting himself in the midst of another demonstration over unemployment in Sidi Bouzid after shouting "No to misery, no to unemployment!" - Dec 22,2010
Hundreds of protesters rally in front of the Tunisian labour union headquarters over rampant unemployment, clashing with Tunisian security forces in the central towns of al-Ragab and Miknassi.
Rallies spread to Kairouan, Sfax and Ben Guerdane.



Protesters hold a banner reading "Freedoom for the Tunisian People," during a demonstration to call for the resignation of Tunisia's President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali


President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali warns in a National TV  Broadcast that protests are unacceptable and will have a negative impact on the economy. Ben Ali criticises the "use of violence in the streets by a minority of extremists" and says the law will be applied "in all firmness" to punish protesters.
Demonstrators hold placards reading "Ben Ali, get out!" in Tunis a day after he appeared on TV to try to stop deadly riots that have swept the North African nation.

Nessma TV, a private news channel, becomes the first major Tunisian media outlet to cover the protests, after 12 days of demonstrations.
Chawki Belhoussine El Hadri, shot by police 6 days earlier dies of his injuries.

  
January 2011
95 per cent of Tunisia's 8,000 lawyers launch a strike demanding an end to police brutality against peaceful protesters
Mohamed Bouazizi, who launched the uprising by setting himself on fire two and a half weeks earlier dies of self-inflicted burns
President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali makes a televised address announcing -
unprecedented concessions and vowing not to seek re-election in 2014;
introduce more freedoms into society;
institute widespread reforms and
investigate the killings of protesters during demonstrations
The Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights tallies 66 deaths since the protests began
President Zine El Abidine Ben officially resigned after fleeing to Saudi Arabia
The constitutional court, Tunisia's highest legal authority on constitutional issues states that Fouad Mebazaa,
the speaker of parliament, should be interim president under Article 57 of the Constitution
Md Ghannouchi  forms a caretaker coalition government by including members of Ben Ali's party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally(RCD) in key ministries and including other Opposition figures in other ministries.
Protests in Tunis and other towns around Tunisia demanded that the new government have no RCD members and that the RCD itself be disbanded
PM Md Ghannouchi reshuffled the government, removing all former RCD members other than himself.

  
February 2011
The new Interior Minister suspended all party activities of the RCD, citing security reasons - Feb 6,2011
Following further public protests, PM Md Ghannouchi himself resigned on 27 February, and Beji Caid el Sebsi becamePM


March 2011

Elections for the Constitutent Assembly announced - March 3,2011
The interim government announced that the secret police would be dissolved -March 7,2011
The party(RCD) was dissolved, as protesters had demanded - March 9,2011


Tunisian Constitutent Assembly Election - October 23,2011



18 of the 217 constituent assembly members represents Tunisians abroad. Almost a million Tunisians live abroad, with up to 500,000 Tunisians in France who elected10 representatives;
In the election,the Ruling Islamist Ennahda Party won the election winning 89 Seats.the details of seats won by the parties contesting the election are -



Tunisian New Assembly Hold its First Session - Nov 22,2011

Tunisia's 217-member constitutional assembly, elected after a revolution that inspired the "Arab Spring" uprisings, held its opening session on Tuesday Nov 22,2011.
The first tasks were formalities — swearing in PM Hamadi Jebali from the Ruling Islamist Ennahda Party(which won 89 of 217 assembly seats);

President Moncef Marzouki from the center-left Congress for the Republic party (which won 30 seats) and

Assembly Speaker Mustafa Ben Jafaar of the Democratic Forum for Labor and Liberties, or Ettakatol (which won 21 seats)


Members of the assembly, senior officials in the incoming coalition government, and ministers in the outgoing cabinet stood for the Tunisian national anthem in a ceremony to open the 217-seat assembly.
In its first act, the assembly voted to confirm Ben Jaafar as speaker.

                                          Mustafa Ben Jafaar,Moncef Marzouki and Hamadi Jebali

A new cabinet line-up, with posts shared out between the three coalition partners, is to be announced soon. 


Former Dissident BecomesTunisian President

 

Tunisia on Monday Dec 12,2011 installed Moncef Marzouki as its new president (a former dissident who was imprisoned and then exiled for opposing former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali )with 153 of the 202 votes cast.No other candidates were put forward. Marzouki will serve for a year until the constitution is re-written and new elections are held.

Marzouki was elected as part of a power-sharing deal between the moderate Islamist Ennahda party and its two smaller secularist coalition partners, Ettakatol and Marzouki's Congress for the Republic.Under the arrangement, Ennahda's secretary-general Hamadi Jbeli will hold the most powerful position, of prime minister, while Ettakatol leader Mustafa Ben Jaafar becomes speaker of the constitutional assembly.

A doctor and human rights campaigner, Marzouki was jailed in 1994 after challenging Ben Ali in a presidential election.He was released four months later when his case became the focus of an international campaign, but was forced to go into exile in France.Tunisia became the birth-place of the "Arab Spring" uprisings in January 2011 when protests forced Ben Ali, in power for more than 23 years, to flee to SaudiArabia.Days after protests forced Ben Ali to flee on January 14, Marzouki flew home from Paris.

Tunisia Celebrates First Anniversary Of Arab Spring - Dec 17,2011

 

Exactly one year ago(on Dec 17,2010)in a hardscrabble town in Tunisia's arid interior, the death knell sounded for the decades-old system of dictatorships across the Arab world.With a desperate act of self-immolation, a 26-year-old Sidi Bouzid fruit-seller unwittingly unleashed a year of turmoil that toppled at least three autocrats in a region once thought to be immune to democracy.

 

 

 

Tunisia's new leaders together with thousands of others took part in a festival starting Saturday in the town honoring the vendor, the revolution, and the protesters whose anger snowballed into a nationwide and then region-wide phenomenon




Tunisia unveils Bouazizi cart statue in Sidi Bouzid

 

 Tunisians have unveiled a statue in honour of the man(Mohamed Bouaziz) who set himself alight a year ago, unleashing a protest movement that ended President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year rule.

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