After ousting former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his supporters from office, the Tunisians have again hit the streets — this time, to demonstrate against the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
About 300 people demonstrated at Tunis’ central Avenue Bourguiba against her visit on March 16, Reuters said.
The next day, Clinton met with President Foued Mebazaa and Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi. About 100 people protested, in the face of dozens of riot police, two military helicopters and a water cannon, Al Jazeera said.
Clinton said: “We need to have a very big commitment to Tunisia, that we can be ready to help them economically as well as with their democratic transformation.”
A 22-year-old student who identified herself as Sofiane to AFP: “We are against the visit of Hillary Clinton or of any US representative. We have never forgotten US crimes in Iraq.”
Popular chants at the protest included: “No to normalisation, Tunisia is free and not for sale” and “Tunisia is an Arab country, neither imperialist nor Zionist”.
Clinton’s visit, and statements about continuing US economic aid, comes amid an ongoing struggle in Tunisia to push the democratic process forward.
On March 9, the former ruling party of dictator Ben Ali, the Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD), was dissolved by a court in Tunis.
The court also decided to liquidate the RCD’s assets and funds.
Al Jazeera reported that day that the court audience burst into applause when the decision was announced.
The complete liquidation of the RCD from all aspects of life in Tunisia has been one of the key demands of the pro-democracy movement.
The RCD has said it will appeal against the decision.
The decision was handed down two days after the State Security Department, which oversaw Tunisia’s secret police, was disbanded.
A new cabinet was also named by Caid Essebsi that included does not include any figures who served in Ben Ali’s government.
Meanwhile, the passage of refugees from Tunisia and neighboring Libya to the Italian island of Lampedusa, approximately 110 kilometres from Tunisia, has provoked the ire of far-right anti-immigration politicians in Europe.
Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Front (FN), visited the island on March 14 to campaign against allowing refugees to land. The Italian navy has been rescuing stricken boats attempting the passage.
In an interview with Bloomberg the next day, she said: “Send boats out to feed them. But they must not set foot on land.”
Anti-immigration groups have only taken up the issue after equally provocative and racist comments from right-wing governments throughout Europe.
Chantal Brunel, a lawyer for French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement, called for the Italian authorities to “put them back on their boats.”
A March 17 Bloomberg article reported Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said at a March 10 European Union meeting: “It’s evident that Italy has been abandoned by Europe.”
Frattini said: “We can’t be the policeman of Europe.”