Tunisia: Social tensions in the region of Sidi Bouzid
Sidi Boussaid was the focus of attention of a cabinet meeting chaired by Hamadi Jebali to seek ways of restoring public services, jobs and investment to the troubled region around Sidi Bouzid.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Tunisia-Social-...
A number of new decisions were taken at the meeting as part of the 2012 Finance Act. Ridah Saidi Minister of Economic and Social Affairs said a entre for Socail Affairs would be established in Sidi Bouzid and ways to establish bank branches would be looked into and work on special industrial zones would be advanced to become effective by the end of 2012.
Services would be^improved and a new waste water plant would replace the one in current use. Sidi Bouzid would be connected to the natural gas network. Health centres and hospitals would be improved as would local roads and schools. The government will also encourage foreign investors to set up in the region.
Whether this will be enough to satisfy unemployed workers who were again demonstrating will have to be seen.
Unemployed workers were again on strike in Sidi Bouzid. In addition hundreds of Salafists attacked the centre of Sidi Bouzid on Thursday according to AFP and the police did not intervene. Seven people were inujred and the Salafists used knives and attacked houses in the Aouled Belhedi district district of the town.Fighting carried on till dawn.
In a separate incident in Bizerte last week Jamel Gharbi, 62, a French Socialist regional councillor of Tunisian origin, said was set upon in Bizerte, northern Tunisia, on August 16 by a gang of 50 sword-wielding Salafists furious that his wife and 12-year old daughter were wearing shorts and T-shirts.
"I saw that they were looking at my wife and daughter in a hateful way due to their summer clothes, which were in no way provocative," he told Le Figaro. The story was also carried in the Daily Telegraph in the UK.Suffering from cuts and severe bruising, he cut short the holiday to return to France, vowing not to return to Tunisia anytime soon."As soon as you leave the gilded prison of hotels and beaches you are at the mercy of gang of Salafists who rein with terror," he said."People who see eye-catching adverts for white beaches for 299 euros should see what goes on behind the scenes. They mustn't fall into these people's claws."
"Today the region of Bizerte is disfigured, everything's changed, there is total insecurity, people are scared and after a certain hour one wonders what might happen. Women pay the heaviest price," he said.
Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë, who was born in Bizerte, said: "This appalling and cowardly act perpetrated by an extremist minority violates the values of Tunisia."The French interior ministry said the incident occurred after some 200 hardline Islamists armed with swords and sticks attacked the closing concert of a cultural festival in Bizerte, wounding five.
A report that a party of 60 French tourists had flown hope after a confrontation with Salafists was denied by the Tunisian Ministry of Interior.
Although the Ennhada led government agreed to keep Sharia out of the consitution its continuing failure to confront and deal with violent salafist mobs is threatening tha stability of the country and is now attracting international attention.
Services would be^improved and a new waste water plant would replace the one in current use. Sidi Bouzid would be connected to the natural gas network. Health centres and hospitals would be improved as would local roads and schools. The government will also encourage foreign investors to set up in the region.
Whether this will be enough to satisfy unemployed workers who were again demonstrating will have to be seen.
Unemployed workers were again on strike in Sidi Bouzid. In addition hundreds of Salafists attacked the centre of Sidi Bouzid on Thursday according to AFP and the police did not intervene. Seven people were inujred and the Salafists used knives and attacked houses in the Aouled Belhedi district district of the town.Fighting carried on till dawn.
In a separate incident in Bizerte last week Jamel Gharbi, 62, a French Socialist regional councillor of Tunisian origin, said was set upon in Bizerte, northern Tunisia, on August 16 by a gang of 50 sword-wielding Salafists furious that his wife and 12-year old daughter were wearing shorts and T-shirts.
"I saw that they were looking at my wife and daughter in a hateful way due to their summer clothes, which were in no way provocative," he told Le Figaro. The story was also carried in the Daily Telegraph in the UK.Suffering from cuts and severe bruising, he cut short the holiday to return to France, vowing not to return to Tunisia anytime soon."As soon as you leave the gilded prison of hotels and beaches you are at the mercy of gang of Salafists who rein with terror," he said."People who see eye-catching adverts for white beaches for 299 euros should see what goes on behind the scenes. They mustn't fall into these people's claws."
"Today the region of Bizerte is disfigured, everything's changed, there is total insecurity, people are scared and after a certain hour one wonders what might happen. Women pay the heaviest price," he said.
Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë, who was born in Bizerte, said: "This appalling and cowardly act perpetrated by an extremist minority violates the values of Tunisia."The French interior ministry said the incident occurred after some 200 hardline Islamists armed with swords and sticks attacked the closing concert of a cultural festival in Bizerte, wounding five.
A report that a party of 60 French tourists had flown hope after a confrontation with Salafists was denied by the Tunisian Ministry of Interior.
Although the Ennhada led government agreed to keep Sharia out of the consitution its continuing failure to confront and deal with violent salafist mobs is threatening tha stability of the country and is now attracting international attention.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Tunisia-Social-...