Tunisia Violence

round clash against Esperance.
DeMbare, 3-2 aggregate winners over Liga Muculmana of Mozambique in the first round, are now expected to face defending champions Esperance in the second round with the first leg pencilled in for Tunis on the weekend of April 27-29. The Harare giants would then host the Tunisian champions in the reverse fixture at Rufaro on May 13 with the winner of that round proceeding to the more lucrative group stage of Africa’s biggest club knock-out tournament.
But with just two weeks before that high profile fixture bursts into life, Tunisia, the first country to be rocked by the “Arab Spring” last year, has been hit by protests, which exploded in the centre of the capital and spread to other parts of the country.
There were serious crowd disturbances in the Tunisian city of Sousse on Friday night during the Champions League clash between Etoile du Sahel and ARP of Rwanda.
Dozens of fans invaded the pitch and forced the stoppage of the game.
According to reports from Tunisia yesterday, a protest in the centre of Tunis degenerated into violence when police attacked demonstrators, journalists and bystanders.
Teargas and batons were used as protesters tried to march to Tunis’ main thoroughfare, Habib Bourguiba Avenue.
At least 12 people were taken to hospital with injuries.
The protest was organised by a number of civil society organisations to commemorate the Martyrs’ Day. Many separate, peaceful marches started from different points.
One protest started from the headquarters of UGTT in Mohamed Ali Square, downtown Tunis. Another began in Mohamed V Avenue with the aim to meet at Habib Bourguiba Avenue. As marchers descended on the avenue from several different directions, police replied with teargas and baton charges.
For several hours running battles between protesters and police — some wearing balaclavas and others in plain clothes — occurred in the streets leading to the avenue. Violent skirmishes occurred on rue de Caire, rue de Marseille, rue de Paris, as well as around the main train station on Place Barcelone.
In response, protesters shouted chants such as “Habib Bourguiba is the property of the people. No government can prevent us from coming here”, and “Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Terror”.
Lotfi Azouz, director of Amnesty International Tunisia, lamented the violence.
“Police went back to the same practices and same violence of the former regime. Our security forces did not learn how to deal with demonstrations,” he said.
Abdsattar Ben Moussa, president of the Tunisian League of Human Rights said that he was assaulted along with other members of the organization before they reached Habib Bourguiba Avenue.
“We informed the Ministry of the Interior that we would organize a peaceful protest in front of the Municipal Theatre (on Habib Bourguiba Avenue),” he said.
According to Ben Moussa, Mohammed Attaia from the organidation’s executive board was hit by a tear gas canister and required urgent medical attention. Tunisia Live also filmed security forces assaulting political activist and head of independent list Doustourna Jaouhar Ben Mbarek.
In addition a number of journalists were assaulted or threatened.
Journalists Zohra Abid from Kapitalis and Fatma Riahi from Nessma Television were also reportedly beaten by security forces with Riahi suffering a double fracture in her hand and her shoulder. Julie Schneider from Le Point wrote on the French Magazine’s website that she received an injury to her hand and her camera was destroyed whilst covering the demonstration.
Sofiene Chourabi, also from Nessma Television, told Tunisia Live that he too was attacked.
“A group of police assaulted me and tried to take my camera”. He confirmed that groups of people wearing plain-clothes also attacked protesters.
Bassem Aounallah, a cameraman for Tunisia Live, was harassed while filming a police officer beating protestors.
The policeman tried to arrest him. He said that the police officer demanded to know “What are you filming? Why are you filming us?”
“After that, my colleague and other journalists intervened to release me from the policemen. Otherwise, they would have arrested me. But the policeman told me I will remember your face, and threatened me”, said Aounallah.
Zifa chief executive, Jonathan Mashingaidze, said last night they had noted with concern the resurgence of violence in Tunisia and had gone on high alert as they will be responsible for sanctioning Dynamos travel to that country.
Mashingaidze said Zifa were worried that the violent protests could be a resurgence of the unrest that gripped the Magreb region last year, which started in Tunisia and later spread to such countries like Egypt and Libya.
“Like we have done with other parts of Africa that would be potential hotspots we note with concern reports of incidents of violence in Tunisia and we are now on high alert, checking on the situation in that country.
“We will also seek the assistance of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help us in monitoring the situation so that we can make an informed decision before we allow Dynamos to plunge into that crisis.
“We know from history that when violent problems erupt in the Magreb region they are not one-off events . . . they are more like uprisings or Jihads so we have to make sure we fully analyse the situation not just in Tunis but in the whole region,’’’ Mashingaidze said.
The Zifa chief executive was last week also keeping tabs on the security situation in Sudan after there had been reports of political clashes in the vast country ahead of FC Platinum and Hwange’s trips for Champions League and Confederation Cup duties.
Last year Motor Action’s Champions League first round tie against ASEC Mimosas was reduced to a one legged encounter after Cote d’Ivoire had been plunged into political violence following a disputed presidential election.
But with less than two weeks before Dynamos are scheduled to fly out to Tunisia, Zifa want to be sure that the Glamour Boys will not be caught up in the crisis in that country given too that history has shown that matches in that country are often marred by violence.
As a pre-emptive measure against fears of a deterioration of the security situation at football matches in Tunisia, the Tunisian Ministry of Interior last month announced that league matches in Tunisia had to be played behind closed doors indefinitely starting the weekend of February 11-12.
The announcement came a week after more than 74 people died in Port Said, Egypt when fans of Al-Masry Football Club charged the pitch following their 3-1 victory over Al-Ahly.
Sudanese giants Al Hilal also saw their Champions League clash against Club Africain abandoned due to stadium violence in last year’s campaign.