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participating in this march to push the authorities to find solutions to our
social problems and to penalize those who shot and blinded protesters.”
The police and army units have been using live ammunition in the
form of buckshot that has left 15 people at risk of going blind. Explaining
the use of violence by security forces, Interior Minister Ali Laarayed
stated that events in Siliana are the product of violent attacks by citizens
and that the security forces were obliged to resort to using buckshot in
order to defend themselves.
France 24 reporter, David Thomson, who was one of the many
journalists who were also attacked, had a different account of the events.
According to him, “There was a disproportionate use of force by security
forces. I see no necessity to resort to firearms, especially if protesters did
not use Molotov cocktails or tear gas. These young people are just calling
to improve their situations and to be employed.”
Thursday people also poured in from neighbouring towns to join the
march and there were also demonstrations in solidarity with Siliana
throughout the province – including attacks on police posts and
headquarters of the Ennahda Party. Today a delegation was also expected
from Sidi Bouzid – the city in which the first protests of the Arab
revolution took place.
According to witnesses in Gaafour, north of Siliana, protesters hurled
rocks at police and army trucks heading to the town, forcing some of them
to turn back. In the town of Kesra protesters reportedly attacked and
torched a security post and two police vehicles. Also, offices of the ruling
Islamist party Ennahda in the town were attacked and documents burned.
Solidarity protests also took place in other cities, such as Mahdia,
Sfax, and Tunis. In Tunis hundreds of people have gathered for several
days in front of the Ministry of Interior in the centre of Tunis screaming
‘dégage.’ (”Leave!” a slogan initially used against the overthrown dictator
Ben Ali at the beginning of the Tunisian Revolution).
One of the main concerns raised by the protesters was the chronic
mismanagement of development funds in the poor farming region,
especially the unemployment schemes. Siliana, which lies 75 miles south
of the capital Tunis on the edge of the Sahara desert, saw investment