Tunisia: Three Ministers Resigns from New Coalition
By Eric Sande
TUNIS---Three opposition ministers in the important opposition UGTT trade union dropped out of Tunisia's new coalition government on Tuesday in protest at the presence of members of the RCD party that was ruled by the expelled leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
Among the quitters included transport and labour ministers, saying they had "no confidence" in a government that still featured Ben Ali allies. Then the health minister, Mustapha Ben Jafaar, head of the FTDL opposition party, quit for the same reason.
In bids to restore calm, Tunisia's caretaker Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi brought opposition leaders into the coalition on Monday after president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia following weeks of street protests. He was forced last evening to convince the nation that the interim government could lead the transition to democracy, and to stop undermining efforts to restore stability and end unrest on the streets.
Riot police were engaged in running battles repeatedly using tear gas in an attempt to break up a protest by several hundred opposition party supporters and trade unionists gathered waving banners and chanting anti-RCD slogans to voice their anger at the make-up of the new government labeling it a "sham".
"We don't want this revolution to come from this criminal party," one protester told Reuters news agency.
"We do not want this (Prime Minister Mohammed) Ghannouchi who ruled the country with (former President Zine al-Abidine) Ben Ali and was a witness to our slaughter for 23 years. We never want him."
The prime minister said the ministers of defence, interior, finance and foreign affairs under Ben Ali would keep their jobs in the new government.
"We have tried to put together a mix that takes into account the different forces in the country to create the conditions to be able to start reforms," Ghannouchi told Europe 1 radio.
The long weeks of unrest against poverty and unemployment in Tunisia which forced Ben Ali from office prompted fears across the Arab world that similarly repressive governments might also face popular unrest.