Tensions in Tunisia may worsen after death

Run-over killing of protester by military vehicle could exacerbate rallies for jobs and a share of nation’s energy wealth

TATAOUINE, TUNISIA // Tensions in Tunisia’s south could escalate after a protester died from clashes with security forces at an oil and gas plant, officials warned yesterday.

The young demonstrator died of wounds sustained on Monday when he was accidentally run over by a national guard vehicle outside the El Kamour pumping station, said the health and interior ministries.

Protesters have been camping outside the plant for about a month, blocking lorries from entering, to demand a share of resources and jobs in the sector.

A national guard spokesman warned of a further escalation. “There is incitement on social media, calls for civil disobedience and even a coup,” he said.

In a special sitting of Tunisia’s parliament, assembly president Mohamed Ennaceur said Tunisia was “passing through a delicate phase”.

Six years since the uprising that toppled long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, Tunisia has been rocked by protests over social and labour issues. Security forces on Monday fired tear gas at protesters who were trying to storm the El Kamour plant in the desert region of Tataouine.

The health ministry said 50 people were sent to hospital after suffering from broken bones or the effects of tear gas during clashes with security forces in El Kamour and Tataouine. More than 300 people were treated for broken bones or respiratory problems from tear gas, said the hospital in Tataouine.

Authorities said about 20 members of the security forces were wounded.

Two protests were also held in the capital, with demonstrators echoing the rallying cry of Tataouine residents and chanting, “We won’t give up”. Fighting broke out overnight during a rally in Kebili, 230 kilometres north-west of Tataouine, in support of the El Kamour protesters.

About 100 people also demonstrated yesterday in the central town of Gafsa.

President Beji Caid Sebsi vowed this month that the army would protect key economic installations from disruption by protests.

Parliament is debating a controversial bill that would allow officials facing prosecution for corruption to be pardoned in exchange for reimbursing embezzled funds.

The bill, backed by Mr Caid Sebsi, has prompted a backlash from civil society groups who said it would “whitewash the corrupt”. Demonstrators have also been protesting against high unemployment and a lack of oil industry jobs for Tataouine residents.

They are demanding that oil companies hire 70 per cent of their workers from the local population and for the Tunisian government to allocate 20 per cent of the country’s oil revenues to the region’s economic development. A government spokesman said yesterday that Tunisia was a “democratic regime”.

“In all democracies, there is no other solution: apply the law and dialogue with the protesters,” he said.

But daily newspaper La Presse warned that “the anger of the protesters could multiply like a snowball”.

It said the government must tackle the issue, which “makes Tunisians feel that nothing has changed since January 14, 2011” – the day Mr Ben Ali fled the country he had dominated for more than two decades. “Otherwise, the worst is to be feared.”