Tunisia Forms Unity Government to Quell Unrest

By Staff writer

TUNIS---Tunisia's prime minister, Mohamed Ghannouchi has appointed an interim national unity government, including opposition politicians, in an effort to quell continuing unrest following the ousting of the veteran Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali as president last week.

His decision to retain many ministers from the old guard, serving ministers of defence, interior, finance and foreign affairs may not go down well with ordinary people, whose four weeks of protests forced the president to flee.

"We are committed to intensifying our efforts to re-establish calm and peace in the hearts of all Tunisians," the prime minister, Mohamed Ghannouchi, told a news conference in a still tense and occasionally violent capital. "Our priority is security, as well as political and economic reform." He named Najib Chebbi, founder of the opposition PDP party, as minister of regional development. Tunisian journalists complained, however, that Ghannouchi had refused to answer questions.

An arrested blogger, Slim Amamou - a folk hero of internet struggles against the Ben Ali regime - was appointed secretary of state for youth and sports. But there was criticism from opposition supporters that the old guard was also well represented.

A corruption commission to halt the pillaging of the economy by Ben Ali's mafia-style family was constituted  by the new government which now counts as one of its biggest challenges it will have to work on.

Revelations from WikiLeaks cables published in the Guardian tells that several of Ben Ali's family's villas have been burned and ransacked as people rage at a lavish lifestyle that included pet tigers, Porsches and fruit flown in from other continents .

The caretaker government is intended to act as a technocratic stop-gap to prepare free elections. Its biggest tasks are setting up three investigation commissions: one to examine the deaths and violence of recent weeks and the human rights abuses of the old regime, one into corruption, and one for political reform. Free elections will then take place with international observers.

Mr Ben Ali signed his resignation on Friday and fled to Saudi Arabia after a wave of protests sparked by the suicide of a 26-year-old university graduate prevented by police from selling fruit and vegetables to make a living.