Dubai: It is not clear yet if the Tunisian President's warning to rioters who crippled the country in the past 12 days will pay off or not.

But what is clear is that Tunisians are no longer afraid to take to the streets to force the government to hear their grievances.

The riots have been labelled an "unemployment uprising" which started in the town of Sidi Bouzid and spread nationwide.

The ongoing unrest has claimed one life, and another man has been treated with serious burns.

A policeman was also injured when his colleague accidentally shot him in the foot on the fourth day of the protest.

Economy at risk

The unruly incidents were given little or no coverage by the local media. Even the foreign press had very little information about them.

The only information leaked about the protests was on the videos uploaded on the Facebook and Twitter social networking websites. It took President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and the local media 12 days to admit to the seriousness of the rioting and its impact on the country's image.

The government is concerned that the current unrest could damage the image of the country in the eyes of investors and tourists.

In his televised speech, Ben Ali warned that the government would be tough with those who put the economy at risk, adding that unemployment was a global crisis the government was doing its best to tackle.

The rioting was sparked when a policewoman, whose name has not been released, slapped Mohammad Bouzaizi, 32, after she was ordered to seize his wooden cart.

Bouzaizi was selling vegetables in the public market, some 265km south west of Tunis.

Too much

Bouzaizi, a university graduate from the College of Mathematics, could not find a job in his qualified field.

So he opted to sell vegetables to support his nine-member family including his disabled brother.

The unmarried Bouzaizi thought that the seizing of his cart and slapping in front of the people in the market was too much.

Bouzaizi went to file a complaint at the mayor's office after the police refused to acknowledge his complaint. The mayor too turned him down and refused to hear his complaint. Bouzaizi then doused himself with kerosene and set himself alight and was transferred to the hospital with serious burns.

Expression of support

One Sidi Bouzid resident, who spoke to Gulf News on condition of anonymity, said the news of Bouzaizi spread through the city and neighbouring towns where unemployment among citizens aged 15 to 29 had reached 27.4 per cent, according to government figures.

Thousands of people gathered on the second day in the city centre and in the neighbouring Manzil Bou Zayan city to express their support for Bouzaizi. The police treated the demonstrators harshly.

The riots continued in other cities as an unemployed man Hussain Al Naji, 24, climbed up a high voltage pole to commit suicide. Al Naji died instantly.