Tunisian PM booed out of town hall meet
Some of those attending the meeting shouted him down
TATAOUINE (AFP) - Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed was booed off stage as he addressed a town hall meeting Thursday in a southeastern region rocked by protests and a general strike.
Six years since a revolution ignited by grievances over joblessness, corruption and perceived marginalisation of the country s periphery, Tunisia has seen a wave of protests.
Chahed and several government ministers arrived in the town of Tataouine to find a town closed down by a general strike.
The market, banks and shops in the town centre were shut and burned tyres lay in some streets -- evidence of barricades erected during the protests of recent weeks.
The prime minister met representatives of civil society and announced measures to develop the region, which many locals claim is marginalised.
"Tataouine s right to development is not a favour," he said in a town hall speech, promising measures to create 2,000 jobs in the region "almost immediately".
But some of those attending the meeting shouted him down.
"Our young people have just two choices: drown in the sea or set themselves on fire!" one woman shouted.
It was a reference to clandestine migration and to young stallholder Mohamed Bouazizi, who self-immolated on December 17, 2010 in protest at unemployment and police harassment.
His death a month later sparked the first of the Arab Spring uprisings and brought down longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Chahed s speech was soon drowned out by more shouts of protest.
"Give us what we re owed by right!" a man shouted, before the crowd started chanting a slogan from the 2011 uprising: "Work! Freedom! National dignity!
The prime minister was finally forced to leave amid the boos of a crowd gathered outside the governorate building.
Protestors also disrupted an earlier meeting between Chahed and civil society representatives.
A hundred-strong crowd gathered outside the room where the discussions were held, chanting "We will not back down!" and "Resign!"
Tunisia s social affairs minister, Mohamed Trabelsi, told AFP that the situation had been "tense" but that "we had to talk to these people".
"They expect to have work for everyone in the petroleum business, but this is not possible," he said.
Tataouine locals have long demanded more jobs and a bigger share of the revenues from oil extraction in the region.
