UN Sending Team to Tunisia After at Least 100 Dead in Unrest
VOA News 19 January 2011
The United Nations says more than 100 people have died in Tunisia's unrest, which was sparked by widespread unemployment, high food prices and authoritarian rule.
U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said Wednesday her office has received information that more than 100 deaths have occurred during the past five weeks as a result of live fire, protest suicides, and prison riots in Tunisia. She said her office is sending a group of human rights officials next week to gather information about the violence and advise the new coalition government.
Tunisia's interior ministry said Monday that 78 people had died in the violence.
Hundreds of anti-government protesters marched in the Tunisian capital Wednesday, calling for allies of the ousted president to leave the government.
Pillay has urged Tunisians not to take the law in their own hands, saying further acts of violence would undermine issues relating to justice.
On Monday, Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi announced a coalition government that retained the ministers of defense, interior, foreign affairs and finance from the previous Cabinet. He announced lower-level Cabinet positions for several opposition figures. But at least four opposition ministers have since quit the unity government, aligning themselves with the anti-government protesters.
Former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country Friday after a month of protests and rioting, and more than two decades of authoritarian rule.
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