Tunisian government reverses protest ban

Tunis: Tunisia's Islamist-led government, in a major climbdown, on Wednesday reversed a ban on protests in the capital's central thoroughfare after an outcry over a violent police crackdown on a demonstration there this week.

It also launched an inquiry into the crackdown. Police used tear gas and batons to disperse stone-throwing protesters who stormed Tunis' Habib Bourguiba Avenue on Monday, in defiance of a ban on rallies in a street that was a focal point of protests that ousted Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali last year.

The protests descended into some of the worst clashes since the revolution, with at least a dozen protesters and eight police wounded. Many more walked away with cuts and bruises while journalists were attacked or had their cameras broken.

The fallout has presented the government, led by the moderate Islamist Al Nahda in coalition with two secular groups, with one of the biggest challenges of its four-month rule.

Politicians and activists from the secular opposition have compared the police tactics to Bin Ali's police state, when freedom was severely curtailed. Some labelled it "Black Monday".

Even the president and the parliament speaker, both coalition allies of Al Nahda, called for an inquiry. That demand was echoed by the Islamist party itself, which was forced to distance itself from accusations that it had sent in the plain clothes and masked thugs that could be seen working with police.

Interior Minister Ali Larayed said the government had agreed to set up a committee to investigate acts of violence and would allow protests on Habib Bourguiba, subject to conditions on routes and timings.

Cameras would be set up to monitor future protests, he said. "We took the decision to allow [protest] because doubts are being cast upon the government and the interior ministry and the ban has become a pretext to attack the government," he said.

Secular opposition parties and human rights activists had used the April 9 anniversary of the 1938 repression of pro-independence protests by French colonial troops to challenge the ban on demonstrations in Habib Bourguiba Avenue.