US: Tunisia 'work in progress'

In first public remarks since uprising, US ambassador Gordon Gray calls for 'responsibility' on both sides. Last Modified: 19 Jan 2011 11:41 GMT

Opposition politicians Mustapha Ben Jaafar (R) and Ahmed Brahim (L) met with Ghannouchi on Monday [AFP] Gordon Gray, the US ambassador to Tunisia, has called the popular uprising in that country a "work in progress" and a "new phenomenon." Speaking to Al Jazeera on Wednesday in his first public remarks since a month of protests ended with the overthrow of longtime president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Gray called for "responsibility" on both sides. "I think what we have in Tunisia is a situation where ... this democratic expression is a work in progress," he said. "And it's a new phenomenon and it's something that people are doing without very much experience." Gray's remarks came as people began to mass in Tunis, the capital, responding in support of an opposition call for the dissolution of Ben Ali's former ruling party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD). Gray called the protests "a constitutional right that we cherish and we engage in," but he said that demonstraters had to voice their disagreements in a peaceful manner. Gray also said that security forces - such as the police who have been blamed for dozens of deaths - must act with responsibility. The United States had remained relatively quiet about the protests in Tunisia until Friday, when president Barack Obama issued a statement after Ben Ali fled the country for Saudi Arabia. The statement called for Tunisia to hold free and fair elections in the "near future." Democratic hangups For now, Tunisia's "work in progress" seems nearly dead on arrival. On Wednesday, the opposition Democratic Forum for Labour and Unity (FDLT) party announced its refusal to rejoin the fracturing "unity" government and called for the former ruling party of Ben Ali to dissolve. On Tuesday, a day after Mohamed Ghannouchi, the prime minister, announced the makeup of the first post-Ben Ali cabinet, the FDLT withdrew three of its ministers. A fourth, party leader Mostapha Ben Jaafar, said he would "suspend" his role as minister of health. The FDLT, like many of the people continuing to mount street protests, said it was upset that so many members of Ben Ali's old administration remained in power. Ghannouchi said that it was necessary to retain them to ensure the government continued functioning in a time of crisis. He called for a meeting of the 40-member cabinet on Wednesday to try to resolve the disagreement and said he would make important concessions to the opposition, said Al Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri, reporting from Tunis. The three opposition politicians who resigned were: Anouar Ben Gueddour, the junior minister for transportation and equipment; Houssine Dimassi, minister of labour; and Abdeljelil Bedoui, who was given the newly created post of "minister to the prime minister". Cracks within ruling party Their resignations were not the only bump in the road; also on Tuesday, Ghannouchi and Fouad Mebazaa, the interim president, both resigned from Ben Ali's RCD in an effort to appease the opposition. Ben Jaafar told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday that their resignations might be enough to keep him in government. But average Tunisians might feel differently. Their demonstrations have been met with tear gas and batons, despite government promises to allow more freedoms. "The important thing to remember about these protests is that they come when prime minister Ghannouchi has spoken of a new democratic era in this country where people can have freedom of expression and the press can have freedom of expression, but what we've witnessed on the streets is nothing like that," our correspondent said. Ghannouchi and Mebazaa were forced into the move after the opposition ministers refused to sit in a cabinet that contained eight high-ranking members of Ben Ali's government, which many Tunisians see as corrupt. "They do not want to be in the government with certain members of the ruling party," she said. Multiple resignations The government has been in a state of limbo since the resignations on Tuesday. Abid al-Briki, a representative of the UGTT union, said the union wanted to see all ministers from Ben Ali's cabinet pushed out of the new government but would make an exception for the prime minister. "This is in response to the demands of people on the streets," Briki said. The opposition Ettajdid party said it will also pull out of the coalition if ministers from Ben Ali's RCD do not give up party membership and return to the state all properties they obtained through the RCD, state television said. Ghannouchi, who has been prime minister since 1999, said that ministers from Ben Ali's party were included in the new government "because we need them in this phase." In an interview with France's Europe-1 radio, he insisted the ministers chosen "have clean hands, in addition to great competence." "Give us a chance so that we can put in place this ambitious programme of reform," he said. 'Sham' government The announcement of the new government was also met with anger by some of the Tunisian public. "The new government is a sham. It's an insult to the revolution that claimed lives and blood," Ahmed al-Haji, a student, said. Police used tear gas in an attempt to break up several hundred opposition supporters and trade union activists gathered in Tunis. Blake Hounshell, managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine, told Al Jazeera that it's clear that Ghannouchi made an error in reappointing so many ministers from Ben Ali's government. "If you see what happened on the Tunisian streets today, the people who came out rejected the idea that the same old faces are going to still run the country," Hounshell said. "I think it remains to be seen whether this new government will even be able to stand and hold these elections in 60 days, as they're required to." 'Parasite' party Meanwhile, Moncek Marzouki, a Tunisian political leader, returned from more than 20 years of exile in France to a joyful reception from supporters at Tunis' airport. Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra reported that Marzouki, a 65-year-old medical doctor and human rights activist, was met by a crowd of his supporters. Marzouki told them that he would ask Saudi Arabia to hand over Ben Ali (who has sought refuge there since Friday) who has to be prosecuted in Tunisia for "crimes committed against the people of Tunisia". He also urged fellow Tunisians to hold firm in their efforts to bring down the RCD. Marzouki called the ruling RCD a "parasite of the country". "It's a government that isn't one, they have to leave," he said.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies