Tunisian Police Demonstrate in Capital, Reject Blame for Protester Deaths - Bloomberg

Thousands of Tunisian police officers demonstrated in the capital, saying they weren't to blame for dozens of deaths during a month of unrest that led to the ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

The police marched peacefully on Avenue Bourgiba in the center of Tunis and shouted slogans calling for a union to represent them and distancing themselves from Ben Ali's regime. National guard members, firefighters and street cleaners joined them. In the southern city of Gabes, police officers also demonstrated, waving the Tunisian flag and singing the national anthem, state-run Agence Afrique Tunis Press reported.

"Tunisian police are innocent of the blood of Tunisian martyrs," the officers said in front of the headquarters of the General Union of Tunisian Workers in Tunis. "Ignorant people have sullied the reputation of the Tunisian police."

In the week since the Ben Ali regime fell and was replaced by a unity government, lawmakers' assurances that an era of repression is over have failed to stem demonstrations by protesters demanding that members of his ruling party be stripped of their posts in the coalition. Protests erupted elsewhere in the region, from Morocco to Yemen, and included self-immolations and references to the Tunisian revolt.

Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi went on state television and vowed to leave office even if voters endorse him during elections promised within six months.

"I will retire from political life after the transition even if I am re-elected," Ghannouchi said late yesterday. "Undemocratic laws will be abolished."

Victims of human-rights abuses will be paid compensation, he said.

Death Toll

The United Nations put the death toll at more than 100, while Interior Minister Ahmed Friaa has said 78 people died during the protests that led to Ben Ali's Jan. 14 flight to Saudi Arabia.

A national mourning period that began yesterday will continue for two more days. The unrest paralyzed the country, closing schools, businesses and the stock exchange, and leading to an overnight curfew. Education Minister Ahmed Ibrahim said today that schools and universities will resume work next week.

Demonstrators who this week demanded the dismissal of ex- ruling party members from the new government gathered at Ghannouchi's offices in Tunis, Al Jazeera television said yesterday.

Ghannouchi, 66, is leading efforts to assuage public anger that erupted with the Dec. 17 self-immolation of a 26-year-old over graduates' unemployment and rising food prices and escalated into general condemnation of Ben Ali and his Constitutional Democratic Party.

Regional Unrest

The death of the man in the central Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid was followed by cases of self-immolation in countries throughout the region, where leaders are trying to contain unrest over economic woes. Protests in Algeria included the self-immolation of three men since the Tunisian fatality, while an Egyptian set himself on fire in front of parliament, local media reported.

A man in Saudi Arabia burned himself to death, the Okaz newspaper said today. Moroccan media reported two instances of men attempting self-immolation in the past two days.

Protests erupted again today in Algeria, where 13 people were injured in Algiers when riot police prevented a march against a law that bans public gatherings, the Associated Press reported. Algerian opposition party members draped a Tunisian flag over a balcony at their headquarters, AP said. In Yemen, thousands rallied to demand the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, urging him to join Tunisia's Ben Ali, AP reported.

"The risk of a spillover of Tunisia's crisis to the rest of the Middle East and North Africa is not negligible," Barclays Capital wrote in a Jan. 17 report.

Banks Downgraded

Moody's Investors Service yesterday downgraded the global local-currency and foreign-currency deposit ratings of five Tunisian banks by one notch each. Societe Tunisienne de Banque and Amen Bank were cut to junk, while Banque Internationale Arabe de Tunisie, Banque de Tunisie and Arab Tunisian Bank were cut to Baa3/Prime-3, Moody's lowest investment-grade ratings.

Tunisia is reviewing its schedule for issuing international debt until its credit ratings improve, the central bank's governor, Said Mustapha Kamel Nabli, told reporters yesterday.

The yield on Tunisia's 400 million-euro ($545 million) bond maturing in June 2020 was up 2 basis points to 5.56 percent at 4:40 p.m. yesterday in London, according to Bloomberg composite prices. The yield rose 9 basis points Jan. 19.

Tunisia's benchmark Tunindex slumped 13 percent last week, the most for at least a decade, according to Bloomberg data.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mahmoud Kassem in Cairo Mkassem1@bloomberg.net; Jihen Laghmari in Tunis at jlaghmari@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net.