One Protester Killed, 18 Wounded at Tunisian Food Price Demo

A demonstrator was shot and killed and up to 18 others wounded in Tunisia Friday 13 June, 2008, in clashes with police over unemployment and high inflation, union and government officials said.

Hafnaoui Al-Maghzaoui, a local man in his early twenties, was hit in the right lung and died immediately when police opened fire at protesters in Redeyef in the country's southwestern region, said union leader Adnane Hajji. Eighteen other people were also wounded by police bullets.

Hajji added that police opened fire "without warning" and that local authorities applied "a curfew for much of the weekend -this was announced to the population via loudspeakers on Friday."

A regular visitor to Tunisia, speaking anonymously out of fear of retribution from the authorities said: "I was visiting Redeyef. When the curfew was imposed by the police I couldn't leave the house. Eventually I managed to leave the house and I paid a friend to drive me to Gafsa. The curfew was in force for most of the weekend. It's scary to be confined to the house when there is the sound of shots outside. We didn't know what  was happening but it didn't sound good.  I heard that police shot protesters indiscriminately.  I saw the army on the streets with tanks and I was told that, at one point, the army was fighting the police. I know that sounds bizarre but that was what I was told."

There were riots in January 1984 in Tunisia when the Government removed the subsidy on bread. These riots began in the same area, the poor Southwestern region, and were led by unemployed young people. After ugly street battles in a number of towns, in which some 80 people were killed, the then President Habib Bourguiba went on national TV to announce that the bread subsidy would be restored. The riots ended immediately.

The government of President Zine al Abidine Ben Ali, in power since 1987, usually shows little tolerance of dissent. Tunisia has North Africa's biggest middle class but after years of improving living standards the rising prices of imported commodities are making people feel poorer. Inflation in Tunisia stood at 6 percent in April, the highest level in three years. Other countries, including India and France, have seen recent riots as high fuel prices have driven up prices. Italy has just put over 2000 soldiers on the streets to fight crime.