TUNIS: Thousands of Tunisians protested on Sunday against President Kais Saied, demanding a return to the normal democratic order and rejecting his replacement of the independent electoral commission with one he named himself.
“The people want democracy” and “Saied has led the country to starvation” were two slogans chanted by the protesters who gathered in central Tunis a week after a smaller demonstration in support of the president.
“It has become clear that the street supports a return to the democratic path,” said Samira Chaouachi, the deputy leader of the dissolved parliament who like Saied’s other opponents accuses him of a coup.
Saied has entrenched his one-man rule since seizing executive power last summer, dismissing parliament, moving to rule by decree and saying he will replace the democratic constitution through a referendum.
Saied denies a coup, saying his intervention was legal and necessary to save Tunisia from years of political paralysis and economic stagnation at the hands of a corrupt, self-serving elite who had taken control of government.
Meanwhile, Tunisia’s economy and public finances are in crisis and the government is in talks with the International Monetary Fund for a rescue package amid widespread poverty and hardship.
Saied’s moves have thrust Tunisia into its biggest political crisis since the 2011 revolution that introduced democracy and triggered the ‘Arab Spring’, threatening the rights and freedoms won 11 years ago.
He has replaced a judicial council that guaranteed judges’ independence as well as the independent electoral commission, casting doubt on the integrity of both the legal process and of elections.
“Our peaceful resistance will continue in the street until we restore our freedom and democracy,” said one of the protesters, Tijani Tizaoui, a private sector employee, who said he had been imprisoned before the revolution for protesting.
The 2014 constitution was the result of months of intense negotiation among a broad array of political parties and civil society bodies including the powerful UGTT labor union, which has more than a million members.
Saied has rejected calls for a similar inclusive dialogue, saying those who opposed his moves should be barred from discussion on Tunisia’s future as he prepares for a referendum on his new constitution.
“Tunisians refuse the unilateral change of the electoral system ... Tunisians are here to reject Saied’s referendum,” said Nejib Chebbi, a veteran politician at the protest.
Thousands in Tunisia protest against president, demand democratic return
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Thousands in Tunisia protest against president, demand democratic return
- President Kais Saied has entrenched his one-man rule since seizing executive power last summer
The UN says Al-Hol camp population has dropped sharply as Syria moves to relocate remaining families
The UN says Al-Hol camp population has dropped sharply as Syria moves to relocate remaining families
- Forces of Syria’s central government captured the Al-Hol camp on Jan. 21 during a weekslong offensive against the SDF, which had been running the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade
DAMASCUS: The UN refugee agency said Sunday that a large number of residents of a camp housing family members of suspected Daesh group militants have left and the Syrian government plans to relocate those who remain.
Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UNHCR’s representative in Syria, said in a statement that the agency “has observed a significant decrease in the number of residents in Al-Hol camp in recent weeks.”
“Syrian authorities have informed UNHCR of their plan to relocate the remaining families to Akhtarin camp in Aleppo Governorate (province) and have requested UNHCR’s support to assist the population in the new camp, which we stand ready to provide,” he said.
He added that UNHCR “will continue to support the return and reintegration of Syrians who have departed Al-Hol, as well as those who remain.”
The statement did not say how residents had left the camp or how many remain. Many families are believed to have escaped either during the chaos when government forces captured the camp from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces last month or afterward.
There was no immediate statement from the Syrian government and a government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
At its peak after the defeat of IS in Syria in 2019, around 73,000 people were living at Al-Hol. Since then, the number has declined with some countries repatriating their citizens. The camp’s residents are mostly children and women, including many wives or widows of IS members.
The camp’s residents are not technically prisoners and most have not been accused of crimes, but they have been held in de facto detention at the heavily guarded facility.
Forces of Syria’s central government captured the Al-Hol camp on Jan. 21 during a weekslong offensive against the SDF, which had been running the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade. A ceasefire deal has since ended the fighting.
Separately, thousands of accused IS militants who were held in detention centers in northeastern Syria have been transferred to Iraq to stand trial under an agreement with the US
The US military said Friday that it had completed the transfer of more than 5,700 adult male IS suspects from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody.
Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation said a total of 5,704 suspects from 61 countries who were affiliated with IS — most of them Syrian and Iraqi — were transferred from prisons in Syria. They are now being interrogated in Iraq.
