The demonstrators were numerous this Saturday afternoon in the streets of the capital to denounce the repressive security policy
About 2,000 demonstrators gathered in Tunis on Saturday, under the supervision of a strong police force, to denounce a repressive security policy as well as attacks on the freedoms of anti-system protesters mobilized in recent weeks.
At the call of several national organizations, including the main union, the UGTT, the demonstrators gathered on the Human Rights Square a few hundred meters from the Ministry of the Interior. They then marched to Avenue Habib Bourguiba, symbol of the 2011 revolution, access to which had been blocked in the morning by the police.
“Freedoms”
“Down with the Muslim Brotherhood regime, down with the torturer of the people”, “Freedoms”, shouted the demonstrators who also chanted slogans hostile to the President of Parliament Rached Ghannouchi, at the head of the ruling Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party. .
“No to impunity”, “Down with the police regime”, could be read on posters brandished by demonstrators demanding the release of all young people arrested during recent social movements.
In mid-January, more than 1,500 young people, according to the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights, were arrested. A protester was also killed during clashes between young people and police. Civilian agents were taking pictures of demonstrators, including those throwing water bottles at police officers.
The demonstrators also paid tribute to Chokri Belaïd, a leftist opponent and virulent critic of the Ennahdha party, assassinated on February 6, 2013. His death had plunged the country into a deep political crisis, forcing Ennahdha to leave the government.
Left-wing deputies and politicians also participated in the demonstration. “Today there has been a violation of the citizen’s rights to move or demonstrate peacefully. These scenes remind us of the old practices under the Zine El Abidine Ben Ali regime, ”lamented Amira Mohamed, vice-president of the National Union of Tunisian Journalists. “It is a project for a new dictatorship,” she added.
On Friday, dozens of organizations denounced police abuses and called for sanctioning the excesses of police unions who threatened anti-system protesters.
These social movements are taking place in a very tense political context and a standoff between President Kaïs Saïed and the head of government Hichem Mechichi and Ennahdha, after a cabinet reshuffle.
