Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Tunisian former president's wife 'fled country with £38 million in gold'

Tunisian protesters were goaded to new pinnacles of indignation on Monday as it emerged that the former president's wife, Leila Trabelsi, spirited 1.5 tonnes of the central bank's gold onto the aircraft that flew her and her family to Dubai.Intelligence officials in Paris told Le Monde, the French newspaper, that Mrs Trabelsi visited the bank last month, when protests were gathering momentum, and instructed the governor to hand over gold ingots worth £38 million.
Although he initially refused to comply, the personal intervention of the former president ensured that the gold was handed over.

The disclosure of Mrs Trabelsi's final act of avarice has enraged Tunisians, but not surprised them. The first lady's love of showy opulence and reputation for grasping corruption made her and her equally unpopular nephews the country's principle hate figures.
Three days after they ousted their president, Tunisian protesters returned to the battle-scarred streets of Tunis yesterday to demand the complete purge of former regime loyalists from government positions.
Demonstrators massed in the capital city's Independence Square, defying emergency laws forbidding public gatherings in an effort to complete the job begun last Friday when they forced Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, their president for 23 years, to flee the country.Over the past few days, Tunisians have vented their anger by looting and burning Trabelsi villas across the country. Imed Trabelsi, one of the most notorious members of what Tunisians called "The Family" was stabbed to death over the weekend.
Desperate to quell the people's anger, Mohammed Ghannounchi, the prime minister and an unquestioning servant of Mr Ben Ali for over a decade, announced he was bringing three opposition figures into a new government of national unity.
He also promised to release all political prisoners, give "total freedom" to the media and lift a ban on the main human rights group.
But with the new cabinet, particularly the senior positions, still dominated by members of Mr Ben Ali's ruling party, the RCD, many Tunisians remained unconvinced.
Moncef Marzouki, one of Tunisia's best known opposition leaders, denounced the unity government as a "masquerade".
"Tunisia deserved much more" he said. "Ninety dead, four weeks of real revolution, only for it to come to this? A unity government in name only because, in reality, it is made up of members of the party of dictatorship, the RCD." As exultation at the fall of the dictator has given way to worries about the future, many Tunisians fear that, although they have removed a hated leader, his lieutenants will ensure that the tyrannical system he created will remain in place.
The demonstrators in Independence Square said they would not be satisfied until every RCD official, from the prime minister and acting president down, are stripped of their posts.
"Liberty, democracy and justice: these are the three main principles we want," said Tuoufi Towil, a mergers & acquisitions manager. "We do not think that the government chosen by the prime minister will apply these principles."
Tunis has experienced days of near anarchy as looters burned shops and members of the presidential guard still loyal to Mr Ben Ali opened fire on civilians and soldiers alike from passing cars and rooftops in the city. A night-time curfew remains in place across the capital.
Yet the danger to the demonstrators ultimately came not from snipers, as many had feared, but from the riot police, whose loyalties remain ambiguous.
As the marchers, who numbered under 1,000, peacefully chanted slogans and sang the national anthem the police fired tear gas and smoke bombs.
One officer fired a rubber bullet at the backs of fleeing protesters, a vivid example of how much Tunisia has to learn in the ways of democracy.
That fact is readily acknowledged by many Tunisians who welcome the departure of Mr Ben Ali but worry that a purge of his supporters will only cause greater instability and play into the hands of the outlawed Islamist party.
"This is not the time for demonstrations," said Amele Bejayou, a woman jostled by angry protesters after she tried to remonstrate with them.
"After 34 years of dictatorship, you cannot build a democracy in 38 hours. What we need now is consensus."

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