Uprising brings joy to Tunisia – and fear to the region's autocrats

[Joanne98]

One man's suicide sparked a nationwide uprising, and now other repressive regimes across the Arab world can see the seeds of their own destruction in the burnt-out buildings of Tunis

Buildings burned, army snipers fired from rooftops, other gunfire sounded sporadically across the capital, and at least 42 were killed when a prison was torched, as Tunisia yesterday teetered between continued violent chaos and the first faltering steps towards a possible new start. Other regimes in North Africa and the Arab world looked on with some trepidation lest, as many predict, Tunisia's unrest should help foment a similar end to their lengthy and undemocratic rule.


The unseating by popular uprising of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali after 23 years of repressive rule and pocket-filling is virtually unprecedented in a region where democracy is a concept rather than a reality, economic hopelessness is widespread, and militant Islam a potent force. Yesterday, in the wake of Mr Ben Ali's sudden departure, Arab activists celebrated, thousands of messages congratulating the Tunisian people flooded the internet on Twitter, Facebook and blogs, and many people replaced their profile pictures with red Tunisian flags.


One Egyptian human rights activist, Hossam Bahgat, said he hoped that his countrymen could do the same some day. "I feel like we are a giant step closer to our own liberation. What's significant about Tunisia is that literally days ago the regime seemed unshakable, and then eventually democracy prevailed without a single Western state lifting a finger." On Friday, activists opposed to President Hosni Mubarak's three-decade regime in Cairo chanted a reference to the Tunisian's president's airborne exile: "Ben Ali, tell Mubarak a plane is waiting for him, too."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/uprising-brings-joy-to-tunisia-ndash-and-fear-to-the-regions-autocrats-2185820.html

[Catherina]

1. I think we're going to see some major changes this year. Rec'd. n/t

[Warpy]

2. There is analysis of the situation over at Al Jazeera

that's very difficult to read but has more truth to it than anything else I've read. http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/2011/01/20111157937219109.html

Western countries had been ignoring that thug for years because he was an antiterrorist ally against radical Islam and it was expedient. In addition, he was very hospitable to western investment bakers and their shenanigans.

It's the sort of thing that gave rise to the fury that resulted in the attacks on 9/11. We ignore analysis like this at our national peril.

I think this might spread, especially when other thugs get alarmed enough to crack down in their own countries.

[Judi Lynn]

3. US Continues to Back Tunisian Dictatorship in the Face of Unarmed Pro-Democracy Insurrection

Published on Friday, January 14, 2011 by CommonDreams.org
US Continues to Back Tunisian Dictatorship in the Face of Unarmed Pro-Democracy Insurrection
by Stephen Zunes

The regime U.S.-backed Tunisian dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali has been the target of a nationwide popular uprising in recent weeks, which neither shooting into crowds of unarmed demonstrators nor promised reforms has thus far quelled. Whether this unarmed revolt results in the regime's downfall remains to be seen. In recent decades, largely nonviolent insurrections such as this have toppled corrupt authoritarian rulers in the Philippines, Serbia, Bolivia, Ukraine, the Maldives, Georgia, Mali, Nepal and scores of other countries and have seriously challenged repressive regimes in Iran, Burma and elsewhere.

On the one hand, the Tunisian opposition seems rather disorganized and the protests largely spontaneous. The lack of a stricter nonviolent discipline at some of the demonstrations, which at times have deteriorated into full-scale riots, has given the regime the political space for increased repression. At the same time, the dissatisfaction with the regime is widespread and growing.

In the course of some civil insurrections, like Iran and Burma, Washington has strongly condemned the regime and provided strong words of encouragement for the pro-democracy activists challenging their repression. In a couple of cases, like Serbia and Ukraine, the United States and other Western countries even provided limited amounts of economic assistance to pro-democracy groups. Most of the time, however, particularly if the dictatorship is a U.S. ally like Tunisia, Washington has either backed the government or largely remained silent.

Indeed, rather than praise Tunisia's largely nonviolent pro-democracy movement and condemn its repressive regime, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has instead expressed her concern over the impact of the "unrest and instability" on the "very positive aspects of our relationship with Tunisia," insisting that the U.S. is "not taking sides" and that she will "wait and see" before even communicating directly with Ben Ali or his ministers.

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/14-10