Tunisian Prime Minister announces new Government

Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, who is leading the country after the Tunisian President stood down on Friday amid violent protests, has revealed the names of the new Coalition Government. Opposition figures have been included, but several key ministers from the regime that served under President Ben Ali have stayed in their posts.

The Ministers of Defence, Interior, Finance and Foreign Affairs will keep their jobs in the new Government and Opposition leaders including Najib Chebbi and Ahmd Ibrahim will have posts, the Prime Minister said.

Mr Ghannouchi said that his administration was committed to releasing all political prisoners and that anyone with great wealth or suspected of corruption would face investigation.

Demonstrations

Channel 4 News Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Rugman is in the capital Tunis where protests continued today. Protestors he spoke to want the revolution to continue and are unhappy with the new Government.

He reports that tear gas was used when demonstrators broke through police lines.

He told the programme tonight that a new video – showing the apparent interrogation of the ousted President’s brother-in-law – “adds to the lynch-mob atmosphere among some Tunisians – a kind of ‘off with your head’ atmosphere”.

Today’s clashes follow a gun battle in the capital last night between former President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali’s security force and Tunisian special forces. A military source said the battle occurred outside the Presidential palace.

Tanks remain stationed around Tunis and soldiers are guarding public buildings as the atmosphere remains tense. Helicopter fire killed two gunmen stationed on a rooftop near the central bank over the weekend.

Tonight, the Interior Minister, Ahmed Friaa, told state television that at least 78 people had been killed since the start of the uprising and more than £1.25billion-worth of damage had been caused.

The Prime Minister, Mohamed Ghannouchi, announced that all political prisoners would be freed.

Coalition

Three Tunisian Opposition leaders are expected to take posts in the new Coalition, a source told Reuters – but the Interior and Foreign Ministers will keep their jobs.

Speaker of Parliament Fouad Mebazza, sworn in as interim President, asked Mr Ghannouchi to form a Government of national unity, and constitutional authorities said a Presidential election should be held within 60 days.

But Tunisia expert Dr Larbi Sadiki warned Channel 4 News that 60 days was not long enough for a “democratic breakthrough”, saying that it was not the time for Tunisia to be “triumphant”.

“Three months in a country, which had only facade institution-building, fragile political parties, proscribed or “loyal” opposition, total absence of a free press, is not enough to prepare for a ‘democratic breakthrough'”, he said.

“This is not time to be “triumphant”. Lots of hard work, at this critical point of time, remains to be done. Skill, compromise, and vision will keep chaos in check.”

President Ben Ali stepped down on Friday and fled the country, after 23 years in his post, in the face of violent protests over food prices, unemployment, and social democracy in Tunisia.

Protests spread across the country sparked by the actions of a jobless graduate who set himself on fire after police took away his fruit and vegetable stand in the city of Sidi Bouzid. He later died in hospital.

British tourists

Here, Foreign Office Minister David Lidington updated MPs on the support his Department has given to British tourists trying to leave Tunisia. He was responding to questions from the Shadow Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper who said the Foreign Office reacted too slowly to the changing situation.

Mr Lidington said that 3,000 Britons have left Tunisia since Friday when the Foreign Office changed its travel advice to essential journeys only. He praised tour operators for laying on extra flights.