Tunisian police, protesters clash amid power shift

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/160831.html

The demonstrations started peacefully enough. But perhaps trigger happy - or just panicked - the Tunisian police were quick to respond when a few protesters ran in front of their lines.

Within seconds, police fired tear gas canisters. The thick acrid vapour dispersed quickly covering a wide area. Victims soon found their eyes, noses and throats stinging.

After the first skirmish on Tunis's iconic Bourgiba Avenue the police briefly allowed this rally a few hundred yards further up to take place. The protesters called for former ministers of the Zine Ben Ali regime to be removed from the new interim Government of Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi.

Then a political bombshell. Three members of the new interim coalition Government quit on their first day on the job. They belong to the General Workers Union, opposed to inclusion of former ministers from the Ben Ali regime.

One of their spokesmen said simply: 'This is in response to the demands of people on the streets.

Prime Minister Mohamed Ghanouchi had earlier defended the inclusion of the former ministers. He said they had 'clean hands' and 'had always served to protect the national interest.

Meanwhile the unrest was spreading to side streets. At this stage, a simple standoff. Minutes later police reinforcements arrive - and then break up another admittedly noisy but still largely peaceful gathering.

And in a separate move, the Government said it would not allow the exiled Nahda party leader Rachid Ghannmouchi - who's no relation of the Prime Minister - to return home.