وسعت اللہ خان
بی بی سی اردو ڈاٹ کام، کراچی
محمد ال بوعزیزی میں کچھ بھی تو خاص نہیں تھا۔سن چوراسی میں اس کا ایک عام سے قصبے سدی بوزید کے ایک معمولی سے گھرانے میں جنم ہوا۔وہ تو اچھا ہوا کہ سیکنڈری تک معیاری اور مفت تعلیم کی سہولت تھی۔ورنہ عزیزی شائد بچپن میں ہی سبزی کی ریڑھی لگا لیتا۔پھر کالج میں داخلہ ہوگیا اور اس نے کمپیوٹر سائنس میں ماسٹرز کرلیا۔لیکن روزگار کہاں ؟ ۔اس جیسے لاکھوں نوجوان ڈگری ہاتھ میں لیے جوتیاں چٹخا رہے تھے۔
عزیزی نےسدی بوزید کے بازار میں سبزی کا ٹھیلہ لگا لیا۔ایک دن پولیس والا پہنچ گیا اور عزیزی سے ٹھیلے کا بلدیاتی پرمٹ طلب کیا۔ پرمٹ نہیں تھا۔تو تو میں میں کے دوران پولیس والے نے عزیزی کو تھپڑ ماردیا اور ٹھیلہ سبزیوں سمیت الٹ کر ضبط کرلیا۔عزیزی بلدیہ کے دفتر پہنچ کر اہلکاروں کے سامنے گڑگڑایا کہ اس کے گھر میں والدین سمیت آٹھ افراد ہیں۔ برائے کرم ٹھیلہ چھڑوانے میں مدد کیجئے اور پرمٹ بھی بنا دیجئے۔بلدیاتی اہلکاروں نے کنگلے عزیزی پر فقرے چست کرنے شروع کردئیے۔
عزیزی ایک پڑھا لکھا نوجوان تھا۔اسےچاہئیے تھا کہ ٹھیلہ لگانے سے پہلے بلدیہ سے پرمٹ لیتا۔لیکن عزیزی آخر کیوں پرمٹ لیتا؟؟
کیا ملک پر تئیس برس سے مسلط صدر نے اقتدار پر قبضہ کرنے سے پہلے کسی سے پرمٹ لیا۔ صدر کی بیوی ہر ہفتے جنیوا ، میلان اور پیرس جا کر شاپنگ کرتی ہے ۔اسے کس نے سرکاری بوئنگ مفت استعمال کرنے کا پرمٹ دیا۔چلو وہ تو خاتونِ اول ہے۔مگر اس کے دس بھائیوں، ان بھائیوں کی اولادوں اور صدر کے دامادوں کے بارے میں وکی لیکس میں کیوں آیا کہ اگر کسی بھی ملکی یا غیرملکی کو اس ملک میں صنعت، زراعت ، ماہی گیری ، ٹیلی کمیونیکیشن، میڈیا ، بنکاری، امپورٹ ، ایکسپورٹ غرض کوئی بھی کاروبار کرنا ہے تو صدر کی پہلی یا دوسری بیوی کے اہلِ خانہ میں سے کسی نہ کسی کو ضرور حصے دار بنانا پڑے گا۔
اور خاتونِ اول کے دو بھانجوں نے ایک فرانسیسی سرمایہ کار کی لگژری کشتی کس پرمٹ کے تحت ہتھیا لی۔اگر پرمٹ تھا تو انٹرپول نے دونوں کے وارنٹ کیوں نکال دئیے۔سرکاری بینکوں سے کروڑوں ڈالر کے قرضے صدر کے حواریوں نے کس پرمٹ کے تحت ہضم کرلئے۔تو کیا صدر نے پانچ ارب ڈالر کے اثاثے پرمٹ لے کر بنائے ہیں۔
اور اگر یہ اتنے ہی دودھ کے دھلے ہیں تو اخبارات صرف سرکاری خبررساں ایجنسی کی خبریں ہی کیوں چھاپ سکتے ہیں۔صدارتی انتخابات کے دوران غیر ملکی مبصروں کو آنے سے کیوں روکا جاتا ہے۔انٹرنیٹ کی ہر ویب سائٹ فلٹر کیوں ہوتی ہے۔
عزیزی کے سامنے دو ہی راستے تھے۔یا تو کمپیوٹر سائنس کی ڈگری ہاتھ میں لئے بے روزگاری برداشت کرتا رہتا اور کسی اوپر والے کو نہ جاننے کی سزا بھگتتا رہتا۔یا ہزاروں مایوس نوجوانوں کی طرح کسی سمگلنگ ایجنٹ کی کشتی میں چھپ کر سمندر پار فرانس ،اٹلی یا یونان کے ساحل پر اترجاتا۔مگر وہ تو یہیں رہنا چاہتا تھا۔ چاہے سبزی ہی بیچنی پڑے۔لیکن یہ کیسا ملک ہے جہاں غبن تو جائز ہے پر ٹھیلہ لگانا ناجائز۔
محمد ال بو عزیزی کی سمجھ میں بس ایک ہی بات آئی۔اس نے فیس بک پر اپنی ماں کے لیے الوداعی پیغام چھوڑا اور سترہ دسمبر کو بلدیہ کے دفتر کے سامنے تیل چھڑک کر آگ لگا لی۔مگر شعلےعزیزی کے جسم تک نہیں رکے۔ پورے ملک کو لپیٹ میں لے لیا۔ہر عمر اور جنس کے لاکھوں عزیزی سینوں میں دفن برسوں کی آگ اٹھائےسڑکوں پر آگئے۔
صدرِ مملکت خود چل کر عزیزی ٹھیلے والے کی عیادت کے لئے ہسپتال گئے۔اس کے بعد جنابِ صدر پبلک میں نظر نہیں آئے۔ایک دن بس یہ خبر آئی کہ وہ اپنی اہلیہ اور ڈیڑھ ٹن سونے سمیت جدہ میں اترچکے ہیں۔
محمد ال بو عزیزی اس حکومت کا ٹھیلہ الٹتا نہ دیکھ پایا جس نے اس کا ٹھیلہ الٹا تھا۔ وہ دس روز پہلے ہی چارجنوری کو ہسپتال میں مرگیا۔
البتہ پسماندگان میں ایک کروڑ پانچ لاکھ آزاد تیونسی چھوڑے۔
By ELAINE GANLEY and BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA, Associated Press Elaine Ganley And Bouazza Ben Bouazza, Associated Press – 2 hrs 36 mins ago
TUNIS, Tunisia – After 23 years of iron-fisted rule, the president of Tunisia was driven from power Friday by violent protests over soaring unemployment and corruption. Virtually unprecedented in modern Arab history, the populist uprising sent an ominous message to authoritarian governments that dominate the region.
The office of Saudi King Abdullah confirmed early Saturday that ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his family had landed in Saudi Arabia, after several hours of mystery over his whereabouts. "As a result of the Saudi kingdom's respect for the exceptional circumstances the Tunisian people are going through, and with its wish for peace and security to return to the people of Tunisia, we have welcomed" him, the statement said.
Tunisians buoyant over Ben Ali's ouster faced uncertainly, however, about what's next for the North African nation. The country was under the caretaker leadership of the prime minister who took control, the role of the army in the transition was unknown, and it was uncertain whether Ben Ali's departure would be enough to restore calm.
The ouster followed the country's largest protests in generations and weeks of escalating unrest, sparked by one man's suicide and fueled by social media, cell phones and young people who have seen relatively little benefit from Tunisia's recent economic growth. Thousands of demonstrators from all walks of life rejected Ben Ali's promises of change and mobbed Tunis, the capital, to demand that he leave.
The government said at least 23 people have been killed in the riots, but opposition members put the death toll at more than three times that.
On Friday, police repeatedly clashed with protesters, some of whom climbed onto the entrance roof of the dreaded Interior Ministry, widely believed for years to be a place where the regime's opponents were tortured.
With clouds of tear gas and black smoke drifting over the city's whitewashed buildings, Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi went on state television to announce that he was assuming power in this North African nation known mostly for its wide sandy beaches and ancient ruins.
"I take over the responsibilities temporarily of the leadership of the country at this difficult time to help restore security," Ghannouchi said in a solemn statement on state television. "I promise ... to respect the constitution, to work on reforming economic and social issues with care and to consult with all sides."
The prime minister, a longtime ally of the president, suggested that Ben Ali had willingly handed over control, but the exact circumstances were unclear.
Click image to see photos of riots in Tunisia
AP/Christophe Ena
In a string of last-ditch efforts to tamp down the unrest, Ben Ali dissolved the government and promised legislative elections within six months — a pledge that appeared to open at least the possibility of a new government. Before his removal of power was announced, he declared a state of emergency, including a curfew that was in effect Friday night and was to be lifted at 7 a.m. Saturday.
Isolated bursts of gunfire broke a general quiet in the evening. But overnight, in a sign that Ben Ali's departure hadn't fully restored calm, plainclothes police were seen hustling some people off the streets of Tunis: One was clubbed, another was dragged on the ground.
European tour companies moved thousands of tourists out of the country. Foreign airlines halted service to Tunisia, and said the country's airspace had been temporarily shut down.
Ben Ali's downfall sent a potentially frightening message to autocratic leaders across the Arab world, especially because he did not seem especially vulnerable until very recently.
He managed the economy of his small country of 10 million better than many other Middle Eastern nations grappling with calcified economies and booming young populations. He turned Tunisia into a beach haven for tourists, helping create an area of stability in volatile North Africa. There was a lack of civil rights and little or no freedom of speech, but a better quality of life for many than in neighboring countries such as Algeria and Libya.
Ben Ali had won frequent praise from abroad for presiding over reforms to make the economy more competitive and attract business. Growth last year was at 3.1 percent.
Unemployment, however, was officially measured at 14 percent, and was far higher — 52 percent — among the young. Despair among job-seeking young graduates was palpable.
The riots started after an educated but jobless 26-year-old committed suicide in mid-December when police confiscated the fruits and vegetables he was selling without a permit. His desperate act hit a nerve, sparked copycat suicides and focused generalized anger against the regime into a widespread, outright revolt.
The president tried vainly to hold onto power. On Thursday night he went on television to promise not to run for re-election in 2014 and slashed prices on key foods such as sugar, bread and milk.
Protesters gathered peacefully Friday in front of the Interior Ministry, but six hours after the demonstration began hundreds of police with shields and riot gear moved in. Helmeted police fired dozens of rounds of tear gas and kicked and clubbed unarmed protesters — one of whom cowered on the ground, covering his face.
A few youths were spotted throwing stones, but most demonstrated calmly. Protesters were of all ages and from all walks of life, from students holding sit-ins in the middle of the street to doctors in white coats and black-robed lawyers waving posters.
"A month ago, we didn't believe this uprising was possible," said Beya Mannai, a geology professor at the University of Tunis. "But the people rose up."
"My first reaction is relief," said Dr. Souha Naija, a resident radiologist at Charles Nicole Hospital. "He's gone. ... I finally feel free." "They got the message. The people don't want a dictator." However, she voiced concern for the future because, officially at least, Ben Ali vacated power only temporarily.
"It's ambiguous," she said.
Nejib Chebbi, a founder of the main legal opposition party, said the dramatic developments do not amount to a coup d'etat.
"It's an unannounced resignation," Chebbi said by telephone. To declare a permanent absence of a head of state, such as in a coup, elections would have to be held within 60 days, he said. "So they declare a temporary vacating of power."
U.S. President Barack Obama said he applauded the courage and dignity of protesting Tunisians, and urged all parties to keep calm and avoid violence.
Arabs across the region celebrated news of the Tunisian uprising on Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Thousands of tweets congratulating the Tunisian people flooded the Internet, and many people changed their profile pictures to Tunisian flags.
Egyptian activists opposed to President Hosni Mubarak's three-decade regime looked to the events in Tunisia with hope. About 50 gathered outside the Tunisian Embassy in Cairo to celebrate with singing and dancing. They chanted,
"Ben Ali, tell Mubarak a plane is waiting for him, too!"
Meanwhile, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists reported that three journalists detained in Tunisia had been released: bloggers Azyz Amamy and Slim Amamou, who were arrested on Jan. 7, and Radio Kalima correspondent Nizar Ben Hasan, who had been taken from his home Tuesday.
CPJ called for the release of journalist Fahem Boukadous, who it said is serving a four-year prison sentence for his coverage of 2008 labor protests.
Earlier Friday, swirling speculation about Ben Ali's location had reached such a fevered pitch that the governments of France and Malta — just two of several countries where he was speculated to be heading — put out statements saying they have had no requests to accommodate him.
One French official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the French government did not want Ben Ali there.
Ghannouchi is a 69-year-old economist who has been prime minister since 1999 and is among the best-known faces of Tunisia's government. He did not say anything about a coup or about the army being in charge.
Ben Ali, 74, came to power in a bloodless palace coup in 1987. He took over from a man formally called President-for-Life — Habib Bourguiba, the founder of modern-day Tunisia who set the Muslim country on a pro-Western course after independence from France in 1956.
Ben Ali removed Bourguiba from office for "incompetence," saying he had become too old, senile and sick to rule. Ben Ali promised then that his leadership would "open the horizons to a truly democratic and evolved political life."
But after a brief period of reforms, Tunisia's political evolution stopped.
Ben Ali consistently won elections with questionable tallies: In 2009, he was re-elected for a fifth five-year term with 89 percent of the vote — and that was the lowest official percentage of any of his victories. Before that vote, he had warned opponents they would face legal retaliation if they questioned the election's fairness.
U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks have called Tunisia a "police state" and described the corruption there, saying Ben Ali had lost touch with his people. Social networks like Facebook helped spread the comments to the delight of ordinary Tunisians, who have complained about the same issues for years.
Under Ben Ali, most opposition parties were illegal. Amnesty International said authorities infiltrated human rights groups and harassed dissenters. Reporters Without Borders described Ben Ali as a "press predator" who controlled the media.
There is little precedent in the Arab world for a ruler being ousted by street protests. In Sudan in 1985, a collapsing economy and other grievances sparked a popular uprising, although the government was eventually ousted by a military coup. The closest parallel in the broader Middle East comes from Iran — which is not an Arab nation — where mass demonstrations helped topple the shah and usher in the Islamic Republic in 1979.
Tunisia's giant neighbor Algeria saw huge protests before it was shaken by a military coup in 1992, with a five-man leadership put in place after the army canceled the nation's first multiparty legislative elections, which a Muslim fundamentalist party was poised to win. The party, the Islamic Salvation Front, became a vehicle for popular dissent.
There were also massive demonstrations in Lebanon in 2005, dubbed the "Cedar Revolution," but those were directed against Syrian influence in the country and not the Lebanese government per se. The protests led to the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon and the resignation of Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister and fresh elections.
Al-Qaida's North African offshoot appeared to try to capitalize on the Tunisian unrest, offering its support for protesters this week. There has been no sign of Islamic extremist involvement in the rioting.
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Nicolas Garriga and Oleg Cetinic in Tunis, Angela Doland, Greg Keller and Jamey Keaten in Paris and Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Cairo contributed to this report.
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Libya's Gaddafi says Tunisia ouster was too hasty16 Jan 2011
Source: reuters // Reuters
* Libyan leader laments bloodshed, chaos
* Says Tunisian leader would have quit in three years anyway
* Tunisia events resonating in other Arab states
RABAT Jan 15 (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said neighbouring Tunisia is suffering bloodshed and lawlessness because its people were in too much of a rush to get rid of their president.
Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisian leader for 23 years, was forced to step down after weeks of protests. His overthrow has reverberated around other countries in the Arab world with long-serving leaders.
"I am very pained by what is happening in Tunisia," Gaddafi said in a speech reported by Libya's official Jana news agency.
"Tunisia now lives in fear ... Families could be raided and slaughtered in their bedrooms and the citizens in the street killed as if it was the Bolshevik or the American revolution," said Gaddafi, Libya's leader since 1969.
"What is this for? To change Zine al-Abidine? Hasn't he told you he would step down after three years? Be patient for three years and your son stays alive," Gaddafi said.
In a last-ditch concession to try to appease the protesters, Ben Ali had said he would not seek re-election when his term ended in 2014.
Dozens of people were killed in clashes with police before Ben Ali stepped down, and since then the country's new leaders have struggled to contain looting and lawlessness which on Saturday killed dozens more.
Gaddafi said the turmoil would only be justified if Tunisia adopts his model of rule -- known as the Third Universal Theory -- which replaces representative democracy with direct rule by the people through institutions called popular committees.(Reporting by Rabat newsroom; Editing by Jon Hemming)
He said this model "marks the final destination for the peoples's; quest for democracy. If this is what the events (in Tunisia) are for, then it has to be made clear".
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INTERVIEW-Tunisia Islamist leader says to return from exile
15 Jan 2011
Source: reuters // Reuters
* Leader of Islamist movement says "dictatorship has fallen"
* Expects to come home to Tunisia within days
* Movement banned, followers arrested under ousted president
By Tarek Amara
TUNIS, Jan 15 (Reuters) - The leader of a banned Tunisian Islamist movement said on Saturday he would return in the next few days from exile in London after Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who ran the country for 23 years, was forced out.
Tunisian authorities outlawed the Ennahda, or Renaissance, movement in the early 1990s after accusing it of a violent plot to overthrow secular rule. But the movement said it is non-violent and the victim of government repression.
"I am going to go back very soon," Rached Ghannouchi told Reuters in an telephone interview. "I haven't decided when yet, but possibly in the days to come."
"The reasons that forced me to leave do not exist any more. The dictatorship has fallen ... There is nothing to stop me returning to my country after 22 years of exile," he said.
Hundreds of Ennahda supporters were put on trial in the 1990s and many others fled abroad. As late as last month, a Tunisian court gave jail sentences to seven men found guilty of plotting to revive the movement. [ID:nLDE6B70Y7]
But that approach appears to have changed after Ben Ali fled the country for Saudi Arabia and Mohamed Ghannouchi, asked by the interim president to form a new government, called on opposition figures abroad to come home.
Tunisia has had a strong secular tradition since its independence from France in 1956 and Islamist politicians have a much lower profile than in nearby countries such as Algeria or Egypt.
There is some backing for moderate Islamist groups in Tunisia, but it is not clear how much because supporters hid their sympathies to avoid arrest.
Tunisia is planning to hold a new presidential election no later than two months from now. In the interim, a number of opposition figures who were harassed, marginalised and forced into exile under Ben Ali are expected to try to establish themselves as mainstream politicians.
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American Activist, Aishah Schwartz on Tunisia's Revolution We must stand in solidarity with the Tunisian people, who, in choosing to rise above 23-years of repression, share a glorious victory in delivering their oppressor to Saudi Arabia; the cradle of the religion of the people he sought to stifle. MORE HERE – http://prlog.org/11224676
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Ouster of Tunisia president: An opportunity for Arab autocrats to respond to the people
By the Monitor's Editorial Board The Monitor's Editorial Board – Fri Jan 14, 2:49 pm ET
Arab spring? Or Arab winter?
That choice is now before the autocratic rulers in the Middle East and North Africa as they nervously watch a popular uprising oust a repressive leader in one of the smallest – but most stable – countries of the region, Tunisia.
After ruling this seaside tourist destination on the African edge of the Mediterranean for 23 years, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali resigned today as Tunisia’s president. He was pushed out by protests and riots that began last month but rolled into the capital, Tunis, this week.
The demonstrations were sparked in December when an educated but typically jobless young man killed himself after authorities confiscated fruits and vegetables he was selling without a permit. As one witness told Reuters, however, “It is not just about unemployment any more. It’s about freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, all the freedoms.”
Freedoms have not fared well in the Arab world in recent years, despite America’s relative success in setting up a workable democracy in post-Saddam Iraq.
This week, the nonprofit group Freedom House reported that the Middle East and North Africa continued their “multiyear decline from an already low democratic baseline.” Exhibit A: Egypt, the most populous Arab country, carried out sham parliamentary elections last fall.
Tunisians, though, are not alone in their protests. People have taken to the streets in Arab countries such as Algeria, Jordan, and, yes, Egypt. Circumstances of the protests differ, but common conditions in these countries include rising food and fuel prices and joblessness. The region has a burgeoning youth population with limited prospects for jobs, and people are chafing against corruption-blocked avenues for political participation.
The conundrum(A riddle in which a fanciful question is answered by a pun.
) for the autocrats – and their Western backers – is how to respond. At first, Tunisian President Ben Ali reacted predictably, firing on protesters (reportedly dozens have been killed) and blaming outside terrorists.
Then, contrition apparently set in, as he told a national television audience Thursday that I understand you.
Click image to see photos of riots in Tunisia
AP/Christophe Ena
On Friday, he resigned and an interim government led by the prime minister took over. A state of emergency has been declared, forbidding assembly of more than three people and imposing a night-time curfew.
Members of the aging Arab Autocrat Club hold on to their jobs in part because membership has its perks: wealth, influence, and, of course, power. But they also fear an Islamist uprising should they step down, or open the doors to democracy – such as with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
In recent years, Europe and the United States have accommodated this fear, pushing much harder for economic and social change than for a political opening up in the region. But as illustrated by the case of Tunisia – a target of Western economic engagement – that is not enough.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke bluntly about the need for more extensive change on a trip to the Middle East this week, saying that
“people have grown tired of corrupt institutions and a stagnant political order.” It was an unusually loud and firm statement from a US official.
Perhaps it is dawning on Middle East rulers that if the lid of repression is kept on, the pot will eventually boil over. A people will not forever be kept bottled up with no prospects – especially as they see, through the Internet and TV, what’s possible elsewhere in the world.
This is just as true in an Islamist theocracy such as Iran, as it was under Mr. Ben Ali.
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RPT-FEATURE-Peddler's martyrdom launched Tunisia's revolution
20 Jan 2011
Source: reuters // Reuters
(Repeats story from Jan 20 with no changes)
By Lin Noueihed
SIDI BOUZID, Tunisia, Jan 20 (Reuters) - It began with a slap and an insult hurled at a vegetable seller in a small town surrounded by scrub and cactus. It ended with a revolution that has shaken authoritarian leaders across the Arab world.
Residents of Sidi Bouzid, where weeds grow in the dust that covers the streets, say anger had been building for years before Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire, igniting weeks of demonstrations that spread across the country and unseated Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali after 23 years of repressive rule.
In the centre of Tunisia, Sidi Bouzid is a world apart from the expensive coastal resorts that are home to Tunisia's elite.
Its infrastructure is falling apart. Its hospital lacks facilities, residents say, while joblessness and corrupt local officials have fed resentment.
Local authorities had confiscated Bouazizi's unlicensed cart several times before, but the turning point for the 26-year-old, and for his town and ultimately his country, came on Dec. 17.
The breadwinner in a family of eight, Bouazizi argued with a policewoman who took away his goods and scales. The policewoman gave him a slap in the face and a slur against his father, who died when he was three.
Without telling his family, Bouazizi bought a can of petrol and set himself on fire outside the provincial headquarters.
"What kind of repression do you imagine it takes for a young man to do this? A man who has to feed his family by buying goods on credit when they fine him ... and take his goods," his sister Leila told Reuters at the family's home in a rundown suburb.
"In Sidi Bouzid, those with no connections and no money for bribes are humiliated and insulted and not allowed to live."
Bouazizi's mother and sisters sat on mattresses arranged around the wall, a cabinet the only other furniture in the living room, wearing Muslim headscarves rarely seen on the streets of the capital under Ben Ali's secular rule.
"I ask God that Ben Ali's people, and the Trabelsi family, who were ruling Tunisia, go completely," Bouazizi's mother Mannoubia said, referring to the family of Ben Ali's wife, whose huge and ostentatious wealth angered many Tunisians.
BIRTH OF A REVOLUTION
Tunisia's uprising began in a region residents say has been marginalised by successive rulers from the northern coast.
Small white houses line dusty roads, many of them unpaved, in Bouazizi's neighbourhood. On crumbling walls, graffiti tells passersby of the town's pride in his role in the revolt.
Near the spot where Bouazizi burned himself alive, residents have placed his picture over a statue erected under the old regime. Supporters have sprayed "The Martyr Mohamed Bouazizi Square" on a wall and called for the road to be named after him.
In the absence of clear leaders in Tunisia's uprising, Bouazizi has captured the imagination of millions and inspired copycat burnings in neighbouring Algeria, Mauritania and Egypt.
But it was his friends and family and the people of his home town that turned one angry man into thousands on the street.
In a country where the media was restricted and opposition parties restricted, local branches of trade unions first plucked up the courage to organise protests over the Gaza war in 2009.
"The fear had begun to melt away and we were a volcano that was going to explode. And when Bouazizi burnt himself, we were ready," said Attia Athmouni, a union leader and official of the opposition Progressive Democratic Party in Sidi Bouzid.
"Protesters demanded payback for the blood of Bouazizi and this developed into economic, social and political demands. We started calling for an end to corruption."
Bouazizi died of his burns on Jan. 4. Residents and family say thousands showed up for his funeral procession.
Athmouni was arrested for four days for his involvement in organising the protests, but when he was released he and other organisers stepped up contacts with residents in other towns.
Demonstrations spread across Sidi Bouzid province, and Athmani said groups of youths began to clash with police who fired tear gas at the crowds. Protesters hit back with stones.
An internet campaign called on fellow citizens and unions to set up committees to support the uprising in Sidi Bouzid. The first to respond was the lawyers' union, which went on strike.
"The unions got involved, teachers, lawyers, doctors, all sections of civil society, and set up a Popular Resistance Committee to back the people of Sidi Bouzid and back the uprising. The efforts meant the uprising continued for 10 days in Sidi Bouzid with no support," said Lazhar Gharbi, a head teacher and union member.
"As the protests spread, the headlines changed from bread to call for the removal of the head of state."
Tunisia's powerful main labour union held back in the early weeks but then swung behind the uprising and organised general strikes until Ben Ali fled on January 14.
Many Tunisians claim that Ben Ali took millions when he fled and that his wife, Leila, took kilos of gold with her.
Yet many in Sidi Bouzid say Ben Ali's ouster is not enough. They want the full dissolution of the ruling RCD party.
"For the Popular Resistance Committees, the issue today is that ... the revolution is at a crossroads," Gharbi said. "We want the revolution to continue to the end, to erase the remnants of the regime represented by the RCD."
The significance of the Tunisian uprising cannot be lost on leaders in other Arab countries accused of suppressing political freedoms, corruption and failing to create jobs.
(Editing by Andrew Roche)
"If you wanted to set up a company you could find all the graduates you need here: engineers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, all of them unemployed," said Rushdi Horchani, a distant cousin of Bouazizi.
"If you go to Sousse, which is the president's area, you would not find a graduate unemployed. It was all about corruption and bribes."
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REFILE-ANALYSIS-Tunisia revolt makes Islamist threat ring hollow
19 Jan 2011
Source: reuters // Reuters
* Arab leaders play up threat from religious radicals
* But Islamists take back seat as Tunisia charts future
* Governments unlikely to relax tough security - analysts
(Fixes typos in names of analyst, Jordanian Islamist)
By Tom Pfeiffer
CAIRO, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The absence of Islamist slogans from Tunisia's pro-democracy revolt punches a hole in the argument of many Arab autocrats that they are the bulwark stopping religious radicals sweeping to power.
Ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali spent much of his 23-year rule crushing Islamist opposition groups who opposed his government's brand of strict secularism: after Sept. 11 2001, he was an enthusiastic backer of Washington's "war on terror".
But the evidence of the past week is that the protest slogans that rang out before his fall demanded not an imposition of Islamic sharia law but fair elections and free speech.
"The lesson from what's happening in Tunisia is that (Arab leaders) wont be able to hide any more behind the Islamist threat argument," said Amel Boubekeur, a North Africa specialist at social sciences school EHESS in Paris.
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Analysis on political situation in Tunisia [ID:nLDE70H0CE]
Analysis on Arab leaders facing new order [ID:nLDE70F07V]
Analysis on regional "contagion" [ID:nLDE70G0H9]
For a graphic on Arab regimes http://link.reuters.com/sux76r
For more Tunisia stories, click [ID:nLDE70A15X]
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It remains to be seen whether Tunisia's enfeebled Islamists will be able to win significant support in the event that they are unbanned and allowed to contest planned free elections.
But so far most complaints levelled at a new interim government set up after Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia have focused not on a lack of Islamists but on too many faces from the old regime.
Islamists were "not able to carry the concerns and longings of the vast majority of Tunisian people, especially the middle class which has chosen freedom and justice," said Egyptian political analyst Nabil Abdel Fatah.
It looks embarrassing for the Western governments that spent decades justifying their support for Ben Ali -- and other secular-minded Arab world strongmen -- by suggesting the alternative was Iran-style Islamic revolution.
From Syria to Egypt and Algeria, governments have used the Islamist peril to justify draconian security policies and emergency laws that gnawed at civil liberties and allowed broad powers of search, arrest and imprisonment without trial.
Civil liberties campaigners have long said the Islamist threat is a thin pretext to destroy not just the Islamists but all challenges to the grip of ruling elites.
"We have seen this in Egypt, where the regime makes it impossible for secular political opposition forces to get anywhere in order to tell the West it's the Islamists or us," said North Africa expert Hugh Roberts.
Analysts said Arab rulers might respond by backtracking on anti-Islamist rhetoric and warning instead of the danger of social chaos caused by high unemployment.
TUNISIA ISLAMISTS DIVIDED, WEAK
Political Islam does seem uniquely weak in Tunisia -- a relatively wealthy country with a strong education system and deep ties to secular France -- compared to its Arab neighbours.
Leaders of Tunisia's moderate Islamist Ennahda (Renaissance) movement have said they want to cooperate with the interim government, not overthrow the country's secular institutions.
Tunisian authorities outlawed Ennahda in the early 1990s, after accusing it of a violent plot to overthrow secular rule. Hundreds of Ennahda supporters were put on trial in Tunisia in the 1990s while others fled to Europe.
The movement, whose exiled leader Rached Ghannouchi has said he plans to return, denies it seeks violence. Its thinking is seen by some analysts as in tune with the moderate Islamist-rooted AK party that came to power in Turkey in 2002.In a bid to exploit Tunisia's unrest, the Algerian-based Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb called on Tunisian youth to join its fighters for training in Algeria.
But analysts say the group has negligible support, even in Algeria. Al Qaeda analyst Camille Tawil said that while small numbers of angry young Tunisians might eventually be tempted, it was clear demonstrators were ordinary people protesting against despotism and the al Qaeda appeal would have no impact.
Across the region, Israel's conflict with the Palestinians and the U.S.-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan have bolstered the message propagated by religious radicals that the West is waging a war on Muslims.
In reaction, Arab societies have become more outwardly pious, with more women wearing veils, more men wearing beards and more people attending mosques.
Even in Tunisia, mosques became spaces for political protest and some young Tunisians adopted a language of revolt that took a cue from Salafist groups and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.
"There has been growth in Tunisia of what could be called manifestations of popular piety," said Michael Willis of Oxford University. "But many Tunisians see that as a protest against the regime, as Ben Ali spoke against headscarves."
"The Islamist opposition is not what it was 20 years ago," said Boubekeur. "Many young people don't even know who Rached Ghannouchi is."
Elsewhere in the Arab world, moderate Islamists have become part of the political landscape, all touting the values of freedom and democracy, at least in public.
"We hope (Tunisia's) popular intifada will be crowned by a pluralistic democratic regime that guarantees everyone their rights," Sheikh Hamza Mansour, head of Jordan's Islamic Action Front, told Reuters.
Commenting on Tunisia, Morocco&'s Justice and Development Party (PJD) said "achieving stability and prosperity is tied to respecting the democratic option and the people's will".
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood welcomed the overthrow of an autocrat in Tunisia and said many Tunisian problems were also true of Egypt.
The group, which is the country's biggest opposition force and could rally thousands of supporters according to some analysts, refuses to confront the state on the streets. (Additional reporting by Sarah Mikhail in Cairo, Zakia Abdennebi in Rabat and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman; Editing by William Maclean)
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