Dubai: After weeks of upheaval, which started as a protest against rising food prices, Tunisia last night turned the page of President Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali, who ruled the Arab country for 24 years.
The local media said Bin Ali has left the country to Malta in disgrace and handed the power to the prime minister, whose government was dismissed earlier in the day.
“As per the constitution, the president, who can no longer exercise his powers, I will assume the authority,” Mohammed Al Ghannouchi, Prime Minister, said on national television.
“I call on the people to show patriotism and unity as I lead the reforms that were already announced” including free elections, added Ghannouchi who led the government for the past ten years.
Earlier on Friday, authorities declared a state of emergency and an overnight curfew. Gatherings of more than three people were banned and state television warned that “arms will be used” if the orders of the security forces are not obeyed.
The announcements on television came as police fired teargas and gunshots rang out to disperse crowds in central Tunis demanding Bin Ali’s immediate resignation despite his promise on Thursday to step down in 2014. Medical sources and a witness said 12 more people were killed in overnight clashes in the capital and the northeastern town of Ras Jebel.
Death toll
Before the latest deaths emerged, the official death toll in almost a month of violence was 23, while the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights said it had a list of at least 66 people killed.
For the Tunis protesters, Bin Ali’s promise to quit and cut essential food prices was not enough. “We don’t want bread or anything else, we just want him to leave,” they chanted. “After that we will eat whatever we have to.”
"We just want democracy," said 24-year-old Hosni, as he ran from a charge by baton-wielding riot police officers, his face wrapped in a Tunisian flag.
"We want him to step down. His family is like the mafia," said Hosni, a hotel worker in the resort of Hammamet who declined to give his last name.
Tarek, 19, an engineering student with a rock in one hand and a metal bar in the other, said: "Our president has promised a lot. They're empty promises."
Protesters even descended on the interior ministry in Tunis, one of the symbols of Ben Ali's iron-fisted rule, where they openly chanted for the president's swift departure and paid tribute to the "blood of the martyrs".
Shortly before the announcement of Bin Ali’s steeping down, the army took over the airport and the country’s skies were closed. Reports said the security forces also arrested members of Bin Ali’s wife’s family.
Analysts were last night stunned by the quick fall of the regime in the first ever peaceful and internal change of regime in the Arab world’s modern history.
Several countries, including Britain and the United States have advised citizens to stay away, threatening the tourism trade which is Tunisia’s economic lifeblood.
