body-container-line-1

Tunisia in low-key commemoration of its revolt

By AFP
Tunisia A ceremony in Sidi Bouzid on December 17, 2015, marks the fifth anniversary of the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi.  By Mokhtar Kahouli AFP
DEC 17, 2015 LISTEN
A ceremony in Sidi Bouzid on December 17, 2015, marks the fifth anniversary of the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi. By Mokhtar Kahouli (AFP)

Sidi Bouzid (Tunisia) (AFP) - Tunisia marked five years Thursday since the start of its revolution with the premier vowing no return to "tyranny" and a small protest held in the birthplace of the uprising.

"Tunisia has definitely broken with tyranny, with no possible return to it," Prime Minister Habib Essid said in a statement.

On December 17, 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old university graduate who eked out a living as a fruit seller, torched himself to protest police harassment and unemployment in the central town of Sidi Bouzid.

His act, from which he died in hospital the next month, ignited the 2011 revolt that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and spread to several other Arab states, bringing down other autocratic regimes.

But five years on, the commemoration was low-key, with disillusionment rife as graduate unemployment remains high and the country grapples with a growing jihadist threat.

The Islamic State group has claimed three major attacks this year, including two against tourists that have dealt a blow to the country's economy.

A small crowd watched a horse show on Thursday in the centre of Sidi Bouzid, where Culture Minister Latifa Lakhdhar announced that a "museum of the revolution" would be opened.

A few dozen protesters gathered in front of the governor's office calling for "Work, freedom and national dignity", one of the main slogans during the 2010-2011 uprising.

"Five years have passed and still our demands have not been met," one protester, Ramzi Hamzaoui, told AFP.

In 2012, an angry mob chased then president Moncef Marzouki away from a commemoration in the town, and no leaders attended the following year.

Tunisia has doggedly pursued its democratic transition since Ben Ali's fall.

The country successfully adopted a new constitution in January 2014 and held democratic elections at the end of last year.

A quartet of organisations who helped saved Tunisia's transition through dialogue between Islamists and their secular rivals were awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize.

body-container-line