A cautious calm prevails in the city of Aqrab, in the center of eastern Tunisia, after a day witnessed clashes between security forces and demonstrators protesting against the Ministry of Environment’s decision to reopen a garbage dump in the city, while a number of activists confirmed that the city is witnessing a heavy security cordon.
The Tunisian General Labor Union called for a general strike on Wednesday in the city of Aqrab, in the Sfax governorate, to protest what it described as the security siege imposed on the town, against the backdrop of the confrontations taking place between protesters refusing to reopen the city's landfill and the security forces using tear gas to confront them.
The union called for the need to open a serious judicial investigation into what it described as the premeditated crime of killing a young man during the protests and to hold the perpetrators accountable, declaring his readiness to escalate in various militant ways, as he described it.
In the same context, Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that a National Guard center was set on fire, and the security forces used tear gas - on Tuesday morning - to disperse those who gathered in front of the local authority headquarters in the city.
And Anadolu Agency reported that Tunisian army forces arrived - on Tuesday - at Aqrab to secure government institutions, after security withdrew from them, following confrontations with protesters.
She pointed out that the clashes renewed in the vicinity of the "Al-Qana estuary" for waste in the city, after the residents moved there with the aim of closing it.
open an investigation
For its part, the Public Prosecution Office of the Court of First Instance in Sfax announced the opening of a judicial investigation into the causes of the death of the young Abdel Razzaq Al-Ashhab in the city.
A spokesman for the judicial authorities in Sfax, Murad al-Turki, said - in a statement to the Tunisian News Agency - that "the body of the deceased has been placed at the disposal of the competent medical services to find out the reasons behind the death."
Several sources in the city indicated that the victim suffocated with tear gas, which led to his death, while the Ministry of Interior denied this, and considered that the death was the result of an emergency health condition;
It stated that the person in question lives 6 kilometers from the site of the protests, and that one of his relatives transferred him, after becoming ill, to a hospital, where he died.
Medical sources reported that Aqrab Hospital provided oxygen to many people because they were suffocated by tear gas, and activists circulated pictures showing the firing of tear gas in the vicinity of the hospital.
Al-Ashhab's sister, who works as a nurse in the hospital, confirmed in media statements that they (the police) "gassed him, they killed him."
On the other hand, the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights affirmed that the death of the young man was "caused by the extensive use of gases."
Today, Tuesday, the Forum warned against "the return of security treatments to address legitimate social demands", which "will only complicate the social and political situation."
The landfill in Aqrab was closed in late September, and the decision came after protests against the dumping of chemical waste at the site designated for household waste, but the city of Sfax has since witnessed an accumulation of waste in the streets.
Tunisian President Kais Saied called on Interior Minister Tawfiq Sharafeddine and Prime Minister Najla Bouden in a meeting with them on Monday to find urgent solutions to the environmental situation in Sfax, which he described as "catastrophic."
chronology
In 2018, the city of Aqrab witnessed protests under the slogan “Suffocate us” to demand the closure of the city’s landfill.
2019 A judicial decision was issued to close the landfill and give the parties that occupy it 6 months to remove the waste.
2020 Minister of Environment in the government of Elias Fakhfakh announces that the final closure of the landfill will be in 2022.
2021 The National Agency for Waste Management suddenly announces the closure of the landfill and without providing an alternative.
2021 The Ministry of Environment announces the reopening of the Aqrab landfill, with a number of safety measures taken.
8/11/2021 Clashes between those refusing to reopen the landfill and the security forces who used tear gas.
2021 9/11 The Tunisian General Labor Union calls for a general strike in the city on November 10 and the arrival of army forces to protect major institutions.
Ghannouchi's statement
On the other hand, the Speaker of the Tunisian Parliament, whose work has been suspended, Rashid Ghannouchi, confirmed that he would not delay resigning from the presidency of Parliament if the solution was to do so, wondering about the responsibility of the rest of the sovereign positions.
In an interview with the Tunisian newspaper Al-Sabah, Ghannouchi said that the solution to the country's crisis is either through President Said's retreat from his decisions or through early elections.
He added that he was subjected to what he described as "misinformation" last July, denying that Saeed had consulted him about declaring exceptional measures and freezing parliament's work.
Ghannouchi confirmed that the dismissed Prime Minister Hisham al-Mashishi was insulted at the Carthage Palace on the night the president's decisions were announced.
joint statement
Previously, 24 judges in Tunisia signed a joint statement calling on President Kais Saied to stop disrespecting the judiciary and judges in media trials, with a speech that incites verbal and physical attacks on them and damages their reputation, according to the statement.
The undersigned judges expressed their refusal to prejudice the composition of the Supreme Judicial Council outside the constitutional framework.
They said that any attempt to do so by the political authority would give way to complete control of the judiciary.