Tunisian revolution, four years later

This video says about itself:

Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt, Down with All Dictators!

15 January 2011

After a 4-week uprising in Tunisia resulting in the downfall of 23-year-old dictatorship of Ben Ali, many Egyptians are hoping the same for the 30-year-old dictatorship of Mubarak. The Tunisian revolution has inspired many Egyptians especially political opposition leaders and activists to take to the streets in celebration of a free Tunisia while hoping and determined to bring a revolution to their own country, Egypt.

This video was taken at a protest by political opposition activists and citizens at the Press Syndicate in down town, Cairo. A dream of many Egyptians to end NDP and Mubarak ruling in Egypt just like the fall of Ben Ali in Tunisia has ended. Even though it was a celebration, it soon turned into a bashing of NDP, ruling party/family, down with Mubarak, and time for a revolution chants. Most prominent chant was “revolution revolution until victory, revolution in Tunisia, and revolution in Egypt!”

From daily News Line in Britain:

Saturday, 17 January 2015

Tunisians march on fourth anniversary of revolution

TUNISIANS on Wednesday marked the fourth anniversary of the revolution that toppled strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and sparked a mass wave of protests across the region.

Despite a strike among workers in the transportation sector, hundreds of Tunisians found their way to Avenue Habib Bourguiba in the city centre – the same spot where protestors massed exactly four years ago, putting an end to Ben Ali’s 23-year-long dictatorship.

The UGTT trade unions played a large role in the revolution and recent elections which brought in a secular president, Essebsi.

An official ceremony also took place at the Presidential Palace.

‘This revolution opened doors of hope before Tunisian men and women, and enabled them to stand out among their counterparts in the world,’ said the recently-elected President Beji Caid Essebsi during his speech.

‘The revolution is a free media, an elected president and a civil society,’ he told the crowd. “Passing the constitution and (having) elections led to the advancement of the democratic transition.’

But the event came to an abrupt end when families of the victims began protesting against the president’s decision to only formally honour the relatives of high-profile political assassinations – calling it a neglect of the revolution’s ‘martyrs’.

‘Where are the martyrs’ rights? We are just used as an instrument to serve the government’s purposes. This ceremony is all mere protocol,’ the mother of one of the victims told Tunisia Live.

‘This is a sham,’ Majbouba al-Nasri, a widow whose husband was killed in 2011, said. ‘We didn’t come here to hear a pompous speech – we came to honour, symbolically at least, those we have lost.’

The country reached a political deadlock in 2013 following the assassination of opposition MP Mohammed Brahmi – only five months after the murder of fellow leftist politician Chokri Belaid.

Essebsi responded to the loud outcry by saying that ‘all martyrs’ will eventually be honoured. Failing to calm the protestors, he left the ceremony.

Tunisia’s revolution left at least 219 protestors dead. The demonstration came days after a Human Rights Watch report found that Tunisia’s judicial system had ‘failed to deliver justice for the victims’ of the uprising.

Fifty-three people, including senior officials and Interior Ministry politicians, have been tried before military courts for their role in the violent suppression of protests.

However, according to the report, ‘legal and investigative problems’ marred the trials, which resulted in acquittals or lenient sentences. After the ceremony ended, Essebsi’s office released a statement admitting that families of the dead had been let down by the system.

According to the statement, Essebsi ‘understands’ their protest, explaining that ‘some aspects of their situation have remained unresolved in the last years’.

Outside the Presidential Palace, separate protests organised by different political factions broke out in the streets of the capital, which were the scene of heightened security on Wednesday.

Several demonstrations took place in Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis on 14 January to mark the fourth anniversary of the Tunisian revolution, National Tunisian TV reported on the same day.

The report described the events as ‘a mosaic of activities and demonstrations’. It noted that the slogans raised in the demonstrations varied depending on which political party or civil society organisation raised it.

The report showed video footage of various demonstrations. These included a demonstration calling for the release of two Tunisian journalists kidnapped in Libya, another demanding justice for assassinated Tunisian leftist leader Chokri Belaid …

Another demonstration, organised by the ‘Union of Unemployed Graduates’ protested against international banking organisations.

On the anniversary of the 2011 revolution, National Tunisian TV aired live a speech by the newly-elected Tunisian president, Beji Caid Essebsi, in Carthage Palace on 14 January.