Tunis, January 11: Tunisia’s government ordered the indefinite closure of all schools and universities on Monday in an attempt to stamp out clashes with police which killed 14 civilians at the weekend.
Facing the worst unrest for decades, the government deployed the military onto the streets in the worst-hit areas late on Sunday and that appeared to have had an effect, with fewer clashes and no new deaths reported.
But witnesses in two provincial towns said police fired into the air to disperse crowds after funeral processions for people killed in clashes with police in the past two days turned into angry confrontations.
The European Union, Tunisia’s biggest trading partner, said in its first statement since the weekend’s killings that it deplored the loss of violence and appealed for restraint.
Tunisian officials say police fired in self-defence after being attacked by extremists armed with petrol bombs and sticks bent on destruction. Those taking part in the clashes say they are protesting about a lack of jobs.
President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who has been in office since 1987, sounded a defiant note in a televised address, saying the rioting was a “terrorist act” orchestrated by foreign parties trying to damage Tunisia.
Students were among those taking part in the riots and on Monday a Reuters reporter in the capital, Tunis, said riot police has surrounded a university campus to stop hundreds of students who were trying to protest in the street outside.
Most of the unrest has so far been limited to provincial towns, with the Mediterranean port city of Tunis largely unaffected.
“Following violence in universities and lycees and while awaiting an investigation to establish who was responsible for inciting students we have decided to stop all the lessons in all educational establishments …. from tomorrow, Tuesday, until further notice,” the official TAP news agency quoted the Education Ministry as saying.
In his television address, Ben Ali said urgent measures would be taken to create more jobs — a major grievance behind the riots — but he said violence would not be tolerated.
“The events were the work of masked gangs that attacked government buildings at night and even civilians inside their homes in a terrorist act that cannot be overlooked,” he said.
“The events are being managed by foreign parties that do not want what is good for the country … Justice has taken its course to investigate the circumstances of the events and determine responsibility.”
The European Commission deplored the violence. “We call for restraint in the use of force and for respect of fundamental freedoms,” spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told a news briefing in Brussels.
The EU’s reaction is critical because Tunisia’s economy depends on trade, tourism and investment from Europe and is negotiating preferential trade terms with the bloc.
In the provincial towns that were the scene of many of the deaths at the weekend, there was renewed confrontation though not on the scale of previous days, witnesses told Reuters.
In the town of Gassrine, about 200 km (125 miles) southwest of the capital, a witness said a funeral procession for civilians killed at the weekend turned into a confrontation.
“Police opened fire into the air,” Mohamed Ali Nasri told Reuters by telephone from the scene.
In the town of Rgeb, witnesses said funeral processions for people shot in earlier clashes also turned violent.
“The town is encircled by the police. There are 2,000 protesters in a confrontation throughout the town with the police, who are using teargas and are opening fire,” Kamel Labidi, who said he was at the scene, told Reuters by telephone.
Tunisian authorities could not immediately be reached to comment on the latest clashes.
In the towns of Thala, Gassrine, Seliana, Rgeb and Meknassi army trucks were sent in to re-enforce police, residents said.
Washington has already expressed concern about the Tunisian government’s handling of the protests.
In a sign it would stand up to international criticism, the Tunisian Foreign Ministry said on Monday it had summoned the U.S. ambassador to Tunis to express its “astonishment” at Washington’s stance, state-run television reported.
Ben Ali was re-elected in 2009 with nearly 90 percent of the vote, winning a fifth presidential term that lasts until 2014. He is Tunisia’s second president since the former French colony obtained independence in 1956.
The country of about 10 million people has in the past been praised by Western allies as a model of stability in the Arab world, though some Western governments and international rights groups accuse it of stifling dissent.