Resurgence of revolt where Arab Spring began

As dozens of riot police fired volleys of tear gas towards crowds of angry youths on Bourghiba Avenue this week, the scene was disturbingly reminiscent of what happened on this very avenue two years ago.

Even the chanting was the same: "We want the downfall of the regime!"

The target of the crowd's anger may be a different government, but many here feel their efforts in 2011, when they succeeded in removing Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, may have been for nought.

Many outsiders, myself included, always believed the Tunisian "Jasmine" uprising had the best chance of succeeding, of building a vibrant new democracy, above all the other subsequent Arab revolutions.

Tunisia has a large civic society and almost everyone goes to school until the age of 16. French is widely spoken, in the big cities at least.

After elections to a constituent assembly, the winning Ennahda party - though allied to the Muslim Brotherhood - promised to be inclusive, and brought in several liberal elements into its interim administration.

But, as in Egypt, liberal and secular Tunisians are discovering that democracy is not so easily won.

 

Salafists emboldened

The murder of leftist secular politician Chokri Belaid may have come as a shock to most Tunisians, but there have been underlying tensions here for months.

Belaid, in many ways an old-fashioned socialist, was also a vocal opponent of Ennahda's governing coalition.

Although Ennahda portrays itself as a moderate and tolerant body, the government's critics say that in recent months it has allowed ultraconservative Muslim groups, or Salafists, to impose their will and opinions on what was always regarded as a bastion of Arab secularism.

Salafists have stopped music concerts, disrupted art shows, ransacked the US embassy (ostensibly in anger at a film which portrayed the Prophet Muhammad in a negative light) and have protested violently at universities.

The day before he was killed - shot four times as he left for work - Belaid had warned there was a climate of systematic violence sweeping across the country and threatening the revolution's many gains.

His murder "deprives Tunisia of one of its most courageous and free voices", said French President Francois Hollande.

His funeral on Friday in central Tunis is bound to be an emotional, angry event. Members of the government have been warned to stay away.

 

Crossroads

More demonstrations are expected in days ahead

And even though political leaders have responded by saying they will form a unity government made up of technocrats until new elections are held, more trouble is expected in towns across Tunisia in coming days.

This country of 11 million people is again at a crossroads.

The state of the economy, which relies heavily on "fickle" markets like tourism worries everyone.

Overseas interests - in particular French companies - continue to base themselves here and are a vital part of this country's future. If they were to be frightened off by political instability, those positive signs we all saw two years ago would begin to fade.

It is easy to see a scenario in which everything quickly deteriorates.

In the last 24 hours there have been disturbing reports of widespread looting and rioting in provincial towns, including Sfax. Young men, probably not ideologically allied to either the Islamists or the opposition, have quickly vented their anger and dissatisfaction.

Yet, the fact that thousands of citizens - young and old, man and women - care so much about the assassination of a liberal politician, also speaks volumes.

These Tunisians are desperate to avoid the polarising chaos that has plagued other countries in the region, in particular Egypt.

Most Tunisians are proud of the fact this was the place where the Arab Spring was born, but they are also determined it is not where it will prematurely die.

Report: Corruption suspected in Mideast defense

An international monitoring group on Wednesday warned that excessive secrecy in Mideast security agencies leaves countries like Egypt, Libya and Tunisia open to corruption even after the overthrow of authoritarian regimes.

Continued secrecy and lack of civilian oversight in defense ministries and armed forces in the Middle East and North Africa expose them to corrupt practices, the Britain-based Transparency International said in a report on the Mideast and North Africa region released in Beirut.

Of the 19 countries surveyed, only a few disclose their defense budgets, the group said. None of the countries makes public the size of its military or the troops' salaries.

In Syria, for example, the group notes that defense policy was under tight control of the ruling Assad family even before the civil war there. And countries in transition, such as Egypt, Libya Tunisia and Yemen, lack any accountability, legislative oversight and credible "whistleblowing" systems through which concerned officers or defense officials can report suspected corruption.

It's a clear indication that replacing authoritarian leaders with elected ones is not enough to eradicate corruption, Mark Pyman, the director of the Transparency's Defense and Security Program, told The Associated Press in an interview.

"Corruptive structures have been allowed to develop and mature within defense institutions and armed forces over 20 or 30 years, and a regime change will not make them go away," Pyman told the AP. "The new administrations need to work actively to ensure that those elements of state become properly accountable in defense and security issues."

There are no signs that Egypt's elected leaders are working to open defense institutions to public oversight, Pyman said, and secrecy and lack of accountability prevail in the aftermath of the political turmoil that has been engulfing the country since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a popular uprising two years ago.

In Egypt and in other countries that have experienced decades of authoritarian rule, including Libya, Yemen, Algeria and Syria, the military owns a large portion of commercial economic outlets. Little or nothing is known about their profits.

The absence of independent legislatures in these countries contributes to high political corruption risk, the group said, adding that it has evidence that suggests organized crime has penetrated the defense sectors in at least some of the countries.

Countries that are ranked slightly higher by the watchdog are Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Morocco. Even so, their risk of corruption is still significant given that they don't publicly disclose the percentage of the national budget that is spent on secret items. All these countries show limited activity to counter corruption and enforce existing controls in the political part of the defense sector, the report said, concluding that the risk of improper purchases taking place in these nations remains high.

Tunisian leader to form new government after activist shot

The killing of an outspoken critic of Tunisia's Islamist-led government on Wednesday sparked street protests by thousands who fear religious radicals are stifling freedoms won two years ago in the first of the Arab Spring uprisings.

Chokri Belaid was shot at close range as he left for work by a gunmen who fled on the back of a motorcycle; crowds poured on to the streets of Tunis and other cities, attacking offices of the main ruling party Ennahda, and by the end of the day the Islamist prime minister promised a national unity government.

There was no immediate local reaction to the plan by Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali of Ennahda to dissolve his coalition and bring in a wider range of political groups. After dark, hundreds of demonstrators were still fighting running battles with police in the capital, throwing rocks amid volleys of teargas.

Jebali, whose party has dismissed any suggestion it might be behind the assassination, said he would shortly announce the formation of a new government of non-partisan technocrats.

World powers, alarmed in recent months at the extent of radical Islamist influence and the bitterness of the political stalemate, urged Tunisians to reject violence and see through the move to democracy they began two years ago, when the Jasmine Revolution ended decades of dictatorship and inspired fellow Arabs in Egypt and across North Africa and the Middle East.

As in Egypt, the rise to power of political Islam through the ballot box has prompted a backlash among less organized, more secular minded political movements in Tunisia. Belaid, a 48-year-old left-wing lawyer who made a name challenging the old regime of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, led a party with little electoral support but his vocal opinions had a wide audience.

The day before his death he was publicly lambasting a "climate of systematic violence". He had blamed tolerance shown by Ennahda and its two, smaller secularist allies in the coalition government toward hardline Salafists for allowing the spread of groups hostile to international culture.