Fresh warnings in Tunisia as tensions grow over protester death

The young demonstrator died of wounds sustained on Monday when he was “accidentally” run over by a national guard vehicle outside the El Kamour pumping station, the health ministry said.

Tunisians demonstrate in support for the protesters of El Kamour oilfield, near the town of Tatouine, on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis, Tunisia on May 22, 2017. Zoubeir Souissi/Reuters

TATAOUINE, TUNISIA // Tensions in Tunisia’s south could escalate following a protester’s death after clashes with security forces at an oil and gas plant, officials warned on Tuesday.

The young demonstrator died of wounds sustained on Monday when he was “accidentally” run over by a national guard vehicle outside the El Kamour pumping station, the health and interior ministries said.

Protesters have been camping outside the El Kamour installation for around a month, blocking lorries from entering, to demand a share of resources and jobs in the sector.

National guard spokesman Khalifa Chibani warned of a further escalation.

“There is incitement on social media ... calls for civil disobedience ... and even a coup,” he told local radio Mosaique FM.

In a special sitting of Tunisia’s parliament, assembly president Mohamed Ennaceur said Tunisia was “passing through a delicate phase”.

Six years since the 2011 uprising that toppled veteran dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia’s neglected periphery has been rocked by protests over social and labour issues.

Security forces on Monday fired tear gas at protesters who were trying to storm the El Kamour facility in the desert region of Tataouine, local radio said.

The health ministry said 50 people were hospitalised after suffering from broken bones or the effects of tear gas during clashes with security forces in both El Kamour and Tataouine.

More than 300 people were treated in the hospital for broken bones or respiratory problems from tear gas, said Sadok Bouharba, head of the intensive care unit at the hospital in Tataouine.

Authorities said about 20 members of the security forces were wounded.

Two protests were also held in the capital, with demonstrators echoing the rallying cry of Tataouine residents and chanting: “We won’t give up!”

Mosaique FM said fighting broke out overnight during a rally in Kebili, 230 kilometres north-west of Tataouine, in support of the El Kamour protesters.

About one hundred people also demonstrated on Tuesday in the central town of Gafsa.

President Beji Caid Sebsi vowed this month that the army would protect key economic installations from disruption by protests.

The latest unrest came as parliament debates a controversial bill that would allow officials facing prosecution for alleged corruption to be amnestied in exchange for reimbursing embezzled funds.

The bill, backed by Mr Caid Sebsi, has prompted a backlash from civil society groups who say it would “whitewash the corrupt”.

Demonstrators have also been protesting high unemployment and a lack of oil industry jobs for Tataouine region residents.

They are demanding that oil companies hire 70 per cent of their workers from the local population and for the Tunisian government to allocate 20 per cent of the country’s oil revenues to the region’s economic development.

Government spokesman Iyed Dahmani said on Tuesday that Tunisia was a “democratic regime”.

“In all democracies, there is no other solution: apply the law and dialogue with the protesters,” he said.

But daily newspaper La Presse warned that "the anger of the protesters [could] multiply like a snowball."

It said the government must tackle the issue, which “makes Tunisians feel that nothing has changed since January 14, 2011” — the day Mr Ben Ali fled the country he had dominated for more than two decades.

“Otherwise, the worst is to be feared.”

* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press