Tunisia government unveils new freedoms
Tunisia unveiled a unity government on Monday to prepare for elections, promising unprecedented freedoms and the release of political prisoners although the ousted president's party retained key posts.
Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi announced that he will remain as head of the transitional government, which will prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections within a maximum of six months Photo: EPA
7:30AM GMT 18 Jan 2011
The new authority also put a cost to weeks of turmoil that forced Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee Friday after 23 years in power, saying 78 people were killed and the economy had lost 1.6 billion euros (£1.3 billion).
Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi announced that he will remain as head of the transitional government, which will prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections within a maximum of six months.
His Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) also retained the key foreign, interior, defence and finance ministries, even after hundreds demanded in protests in Tunis and other cities Monday that the party be abolished.
The new government includes three leaders of the legal opposition as well as representatives of civil society, with a dissident blogger arrested under Mr Ben Ali named as secretary of state for youth and sports.
It excludes banned political parties including the Communists and the Islamist Ennahdha, although Mr Ghannouchi said that all political parties would be legalised and media freed.
Restrictions would also be lifted on non-governmental organisations including Tunisia's main human rights group, the Human Rights League, he said.
"We announce total freedom of information," Mr Ghannouchi told reporters after announcing the cabinet. "We have decided to allow all associations to have normal activities without any interference on the part of the government."
Moncef Marzouki, a dissident living in Paris who has announced that he would stand for the presidency in the future polls, immediately branded the new government a "masquerade" still dominated by Mr Ben Ali's supporters.
"Tunisia deserved much more," the secular leftist said.
"A unity government in name only because, in reality, it is made up of members of the party of dictatorship, the RCD," he said on France's I-Tele channel.
The Communist party, which is still banned in Tunisia, also slammed the new government saying it was the old regime in a new guise.
With Tunisia in chaos since Mr Ben Ali's downfall – which followed weeks of popular revolt in which security forces opened fire on protesters – the UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for the "prompt restoration" of rule of law.
Interior Minister Ahmed Friaa said 78 people were killed, several times higher than the last official figure of 21 dead issued on January 11, a few days before the president fled.
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Telegraph.co.uk
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