CAIRO: Egyptian activists have called for a protest Sunday in solidarity with the Tunisians, who have recently staged various protests over the conditions in their country. Tunisian demonstrations broke out on Dec. 17, 2010 in the central town of Sidi Bouzid, when Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire as police seized his fruit and vegetable stand. Mahdi Said Horchani, a relative of Bouazizi, told Al-Jazeera English: “People are angry at the case of Mohamed [Bouazizi] and the deterioration of unemployment in the region.” Since then at least two cases of attempted suicide in protest over economic conditions have been reported by Tunisian groups. Demonstrations of solidarity with the people of Sidi Bouzid have subsequently spread to other parts of the country, including Tunis, as well as cities located in other countries. Egyptians who called for the protest on Sunday in Cairo's Talat Harb Square stated that they are protesting in solidarity with the Tunisian people against “repression, corruption, and police violence.” Public protests in Tunisia are rare. An extensive security apparatus tightly controls all expressions of dissent in the country of 10 million. The police have reportedly responded to the protests with violence and the use of live ammunition. While some western powers describe Tunisian President Zein El-Abdeen Ben Ali — who has been in power since 1987 — as a pro-West champion of women's rights who has presided over an “economic miracle” in his country, Tunisian and international rights groups say that what economic progress Tunisia has witnessed has come at the expense of civil liberties. Amnesty International's 2010 annual report stated that, in Tunisia, freedom of expression and association were “severely restricted,” and government critics were “harassed, threatened, and prosecuted.” It goes on to say that “hundreds of people were convicted following unfair trials on terrorism-related charges, and that torture and ill treatment continued to be reported.” Tunisian website Nawaat has reported that 10 website are currently blocked in Tunisia — including Facebook, YouTube and Wordpress — in continuation of the Ben Ali regime's policy of blocking political content on the internet. While lauded by international financial institutions, Ben Ali's economic liberalization program has failed to address the unemployment rate in the country, which official estimates put at 14 percent. According to the World Bank, the number of young unemployed graduates nearly doubled in the last 10 years, and unemployment among graduates with two-year technical and master's degrees stands at 50 percent. The World Bank study, published in March 2008, adds that more than 38 percent of young people have not been employed since graduating their respective educational institutions. Ben Ali has blamed the recent protests in Tunisia on a “minority of extremists and agitators … at [the price of] others.” “[The protests portray] a negative and anti-civil behavior that presents a distorted image of our country and impedes the flow of investors and tourists,” the Tunisian president is quoted as saying on the presidency's official website, carthage.tn, in an account of an address broadcasted on Tuesday. Impeding upon investment and tourism negatively impacts job creation, which are needed to curb joblessness, he said. “[The] law will be enforced rigorously against these people,” Ben Ali added.
