Tunisian vendor self immolates as desperation increases

Cigarette vendor suffers severe burns after setting fire to himself on a Tunis street in act mirroring the event that triggered the Arab Spring.

Adel Khadri, 27, is placed on a stretcher before being transported to hospital by ambulance after setting fire to himself in the main street of Tunis.

TUNIS //A cigarette vendor suffered severe burns yesterday after immolating himself in an act of desperation on a Tunis street hours before politicians were to vote on a new government to pull Tunisia out of political crisis.

Officials named the man as 27-year-old Adel Khadri and said he hails from an extremely poor family in Jendouba in northwestern Tunisia. He arrived in the capital a few months ago to look for work.

"This is a young man who sells cigarettes because of unemployment," witnesses quoted Mr Khadri shouting before he set himself on fire on the steps of the municipal theatre on Habib Bourguiba avenue - centre of the 2011 uprising that toppled ex-dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Passers-by rushed to douse the flames but not before Mr Khadri had suffered serious burn wounds. He was still conscious when he was rushed to the Ben Arous hospital by emergency services.

Officials said Mr Khadri, who eked out a living peddling cigarettes in the streets of Tunis, was a broken man.

"His life is not in danger but he has third-degree burns to the head and the back," emergency services spokesman Mongi Khadhi said. "He was demoralised. His father died four years ago. He has three brothers and the family is very poor."

Interior ministry spokesman Khaled Tarrouche too attributed Mr Khadri's desperate action to poverty.

"He is unemployed and came to Tunis a few months ago. He was very fragile, psychologically broken, and that is why he set himself on fire."

The number of people committing suicide or attempting to take their own lives has multiplied in Tunisia since a young street vendor set himself on fire on December 17, 2010, in a drastic act of protest against police harassment.

Mohamed Bouazizi's death in the town of Sidi Bouzid ignited a mass uprising that toppled Ben Ali the following month and touched off the Arab Spring uprisings across several countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

Economic and social difficulties were the key factors that brought down Ben Ali's regime and two years since he fled from Tunisia unemployment and poverty continue to plague the north African country.

The economy was badly affected by the revolution, which paralysed the strategic tourism sector, although the country is out of recession and posted 3.6 per cent growth in 2012.

Unemployment remains high at about 17 per cent, especially among young graduates.

In addition to economic hardships, Tunisia is grappling with a political crisis that has been exacerbated by the daylight murder on February 6 of Chokri Belaid, a leftist opposition leader.

More than two years after the mass protests that toppled Ben Ali, the country is still without a fixed political system due to a lack of consensus between the main parties.

The ruling Islamist Ennahda party is pushing for a pure parliamentary system while others are demanding that the president retain key powers.

Parliament was to meet yesterday to debate a new cabinet line-up headed by premier-designate Ali Larayedh of the Ennahda. Officials said a vote could be delayed until today.

The new cabinet was formed as part of efforts to resolve the political impasse, which last month brought down the government of Hamadi Jabali.

The MPs are also to vote on a timetable for the adoption of a new constitution and the staging of legislative elections.

Opposition MPs have rejected as "unrealistic" plans to hold a July vote on the constitution and to stage new elections in October.

Assembly speaker Ben Jaafar has called for an end to the tug-of-war, with the political uncertainty in Tunisia also exacerbated by the growing influence of militant Islamist groups