Guest Post: Yassine from Tunisia
Last Wednesday morning, Tunisia woke up to the tragic and
shocking assassination of Chokri Belaid, a leading opposition figure and
secretary general of the left-leaning Democratic Patriots party. Chokri Belaid was shot outside his home in an upscale Tunis
neighborhood as he was getting into his car. According to eyewitness accounts,
later confirmed by the Minister of Interior, Belaid was gunned down by two
unidentified men who shot him four times at his neck and head. This political assassination, which crowns escalating waves
of political violence in the past months, is the first of its kind since the
fulfillment of the 14th of January 2011 Revolution, which signaled
the birth of the Arab Spring.
Ironically, Mr. Belaid has warned countless times of the dangers
of mounting political violence, and has urged a national dialogue to address
this issue. On the night before his murder, Belaid stated at a Tunisian T.V.
station that “the government’s laxity in face of the political violence the
country has been witnessing and the non-condemnation of the perpetrators of
such violence, whom all Tunisians know, is an effective green light for
political assassinations.”
 |
| Chokri Belaid |
A lawyer and human rights activist, Chokri Belaid has a long
history of activism. He was one of Tunisia's most prominent secular political
figures opposed to Islamist parties and an outspoken critic of the government.
He is widely considered to be one of the top three leftist thinkers in Tunisia. The assassination has sparked protests and civil unrest
since Wednesday, with police clashing with protesters and firing tear gas in
demonstration in several cities around the country. A policeman was killed by a
stone to the chest thrown by a protester. Last Friday, thousands of Tunisians
attended Belaid’s funeral. There were minor clashes as his coffin was carried
through Tunis, but the event was largely peaceful. Sporadic protests and
clashes have been reported all around Tunisia, and many workers are observing a
general strike. Unions say the Islamist-led government is to blame for the
killing, an accusation it vehemently denied.
 |
| Belaid's coffin |
The government was fast in attempting to contain the
situation. Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali has tried to defuse tensions by
announcing that he would form a non-partisan, technocratic government. His governing Ennahda party has rejected this. But Jebali on
Friday told reporters he would go ahead with his plan, saying a technocratic
government would not require the approval of the constituent assembly.
Random Yassine thoughts: Aside from being a great
loss to the Tunisian political scene, Chokri Belaid’s murder establishes a
grave precedent in a country where political assassinations have been rare.
Even if I’m thousands of miles away from my homeland, I could ostensibly feel a
climate of distrust and animosity settling within the society, which is becoming even more polarized. I don’t expect the instability and unrest growing inside
the country to fade away anytime soon. Even the ultra-organized and usually
consensual ruling party of Ennahda is being destabilized, with most members of
the politburo disagreeing with Jebali’s decision to dismantle the Islamist
controlled government and install a “technocratic” one instead. Jebali’s move
is clever and demonstrates a cautious and non-inflammatory handling of the
crisis, although I am very skeptical as to the impartiality of the prospective
government. The only way to defuse the situation in my opinion is for the
investigation to yield some meaningful outcomes, for that absence will
prove very suspicious and would discredit the government’s intentions. One
thing is certain, the assassination is clearly politically motivated. Whether
it was a lone psychopathic gunman, some occult political or religious
organization assassin, or a government orchestrated operation remains a
mystery.
No comments:
Post a Comment