Injured, kin of dead in Tunisia seek compensation

Tunis: Several dozen injured people and relatives of those killed during the Tunisian revolution on Monday held a protest outside the defence ministry to demand compensation and justice.

Denouncing what they called the "unkept promises" of the government and the slow progress of the courts in convicting killers, the demonstrators held up photographs of their relatives and demanded compensation.

"Let the killers and those who gave the orders be tried and let the government show its good faith," called out the father of Mohammad, one of the victims of the four-week uprising that ended on January 14, 2011, when President Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali fled to Saudi Arabia.

No verdicts on murders

The military courts have yet to hand down any verdicts on those accused of killing "the martyrs of the revolution" in the north African country, while trials against Bin Ali and his senior aides for their roles in cracking down on the uprising are still under way.

According to a UN toll, some 300 Tunisians died and 700 were injured during the uprising, which triggered the Arab Spring insurrections that spread to Egypt, Libya, Yemen and other countries.

Not enough

Injured people and relatives of the dead said yesterday that they had not yet received a second batch of promised compensation.

On January 16, the government announced further compensation for families.

Some people have already received €10,000 (Dh49,194) for the loss of a family member, while some injured have received €1,500.

"That amount doesn't even suffice for medical care," Lamia Farhani, president of the Association of Families of Martyrs and the Wounded of the Revolution, said.